Our Land, Ourselves: Readings on People and Place

by Peter Forbes (Editor)

Our Land, Ourselves is a collection of diverse readings on the many themes of people and place - themes such as the protection of wilderness and the idea of the wild, the nature of home, the purpose of work, and the meaning of community. These voices suggest a new way of viewing land conservation as the process of building values and positively shaping human lives.

240 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Peter Forbes (born 1960) is a Scottish actor known for his roles in West End musicals, including Follies in 2017 to 2019, and for his audio recording work.

Reviews

[Lucky · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

neat little collection of readings

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's important to note two things about this collection of prose before you begin reading it:
1) It was written in 1999.
2) It is purposefully a collection of quotes, snippets of prose, and small segments of larger bodies of environmental works. It is NOT supposed to be a single contained story.

Knowing that, this book is a great before-bed read and serves as a wonderful jumping ground to learn about different bodies of thought and literature available on themes related to land use. Excerpts are divided into sections based on different particular aspects on sustainability, and does a solid job referencing works which cover the spiritual, tangible, financial, and environmental facets of the subject, and all referenced works are listed in a bibliography at the back.

Many of the writings, which are at all at least over 25 years old, are extremely relevant to topics circling in today's collective consciousness. I give it 5 stars because reading this book inspired me to read others.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our Land, Ourselves is a collection of diverse readings on the many themes of people and place -- themes such as the protection of wilderness and the idea of the wild, the nature of home, the purpose of work, and the meaning of community. These voices suggest a new way of viewing land conservation as the process of building values and positively shaping human lives.
~~from the back cover

I don't think the book succeeded in getting me to view land conservation in any different way than I already did. The book is composed of short (and some not-so-short) snippets of prose from a variety of environmental or nature writers. It was definitely "preaching to the choir", and none of the prose was lyrical, or drew the reader into the silence of wilderness, or the beauty of a mountain lake.

I was disappointed.