The Nature-Study Idea

In The Nature-Study Idea, Liberty Hyde Bailey articulated the essence of a social movement, led by ordinary public-school teachers, that lifted education out of the classroom and placed it into firsthand contact with the natural world. The aim was simple but revolutionary: sympathy with nature to increase the joy of living and foster stewardship of the earth.

With this definitive edition, John Linstrom reintroduces The Nature-Study Idea as an environmental classic for our time. It provides historical context through a wealth of related writings, and introductory essays relate Bailey's vision to current work in education and the intersection of climate change and culture. In this period of planetary turmoil, Bailey's ambition to cultivate wonder (in adults as well as children) and lead readers back into the natural world is more important than ever.

Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) was Dean of the College of Agriculture at Cornell University and Chair of the Commission on Country Life under President Theodore Roosevelt. A pioneer in modern horticulture and environmental philosophy, he was the author of more than seventy books.

John Linstrom is Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate and Inequality at the Climate Museum. He coedited The Liberty Hyde Bailey Gardener's Companion.

In an agricultural bible, Bailey would be Moses for having written, 'If nature is the norm, then the necessity for challenging and amending the abuses that accompany civilization becomes baldly apparent by very contrast' (The Outlook to Nature). We don't have an agricultural bible, but this volume represents an encyclopedic guide for our time.

Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, author of Teaching Children Science:

Liberty Hyde Bailey inspired teachers, colleagues, and a conservation-minded public with his publications, most centrally The Nature-Study Idea. Introductory essays in this edition remind readers that his insight and his environmental concerns remain relevant more than a century later.

Dianne D. Glave, author of Rooted in the Earth:

Twenty-first century environmentalism is the legacy of many, including Liberty Hyde Bailey, one of the pioneering minds in nature-study. This edition of The Nature-Study Idea is a crucial reminder of the many precursors of contemporary conservation and preservation.

AG Rud, Washington State University:

Rooted in American Transcendentalism, as was John Dewey, Liberty Hyde Bailey is underappreciated in philosophy of education and K-12 pedagogical practice. Bailey's The Nature-Study Idea is a powerful forerunner to ecojustice and environmental pedagogies we may only ignore or dismiss at our peril.