L. H. Bailey

L. H. (Liberty Hyde) Bailey—a gifted teacher, administrator, scientist, author, public servant, poet, and philosopher—is known as the Father of American Horticulture. His lectures and writings e...

Holy Earth, The

L. H. Bailey

Click this link to read the Title pages, Table of Contents, Preface, and beginning text pages of this facsimile edition

Liberty Hyde Bailey—a gifted teacher, administrator, scientist, author, public servant, poet, and philosopher—is known as the Father of American Horticulture. In this facsimile edition, Progressive and provocative, Bailey's seminal 1915 work calls on the individual to recognize the divine in the common land we occupy. The MSU Press is pleased to reintroduce this timeless work in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of his birth and the 70th anniversary of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum.

In The Holy Earth, Bailey, a proponent of environmental stewardship, reflects on society's disconnect with its own earth at the turn of the twentieth century. His lectures and writings encouraged the application of science in horticulture and were influential in initial efforts to protect the environment. This reissue of this timeless work of environmental ethics contains a new introduction by Ralph Taggart, Chair of the Department of Geological Sciences and Professor of Plantbiology at Michigan State University.

Reviews

A voice of humility and restraint in our dealings with the natural world, Bailey reminds us that adaptation, not domination, is the measure of human progress...In promoting an ethic of stewardship that weaves together a regard for nature with a sense of social responsibility and duty to the future, Bailey reminds us, like Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson would after him, that the fates of nature and humans are ultimately bound together....Bailey’s words will shine like a beacon for those seeking to articulate a compelling ethical and civic vision of sustainability in the twenty-first century.
— Ben A. Minteer, author of The Landscape of Reform: Civic Pragmatism and Reconstructing Conservation

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"Bailey (1858-1954) produced a series of five books known as the Background Books or the Philosophy of the Holy Earth Series. They present an extended discourse on humanity's place in the universe, pivoting on the theme of human relationship with and responsibility to the natural world." - SciTech Book News, December 2008