The Holy Earth: Toward a New Environmental Ethic

by Liberty Hyde Bailey, Norman Wirzba

This is the book that helped set the stage for the ecology movement. Written in 1915 by Liberty Hyde Bailey, the Father of American Horticulture, it exercised enormous influence on early environmental protection programs. In addition to its timeless reflections on the earth's intrinsic divinity, it applies groundbreaking scientific principles to horticulture.
A botanist and horticulturist, Bailey was dismayed by the increasing separation between people and the land. In this book, he emphasizes the value of local culture and the preservation of wilderness. Bailey notes the rise of industrialized agriculture and cautions against the movement away from natural food. His clear expression of the religious and ethical implications of the human relationship to the earth offers both an enduring philosophy and practical modern advice.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Nature, Environment

126 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1980

About the author

Liberty Hyde Bailey, a botanist, through teaching and numerous publications, including the six-volume Standard Cyclopedia of American Horticulture (1914-1917), transformed the science.

Liberty Hyde Bailey cofounded the society.

Born as the third son of Liberty Hyde Bailey Sr. and Sarah Harrison Bailey, farmers, Bailey entered the Michigan agricultural college in 1878 and graduated in 1882.

In the next year of 1883, he assisted the renowned Asa Gray of Harvard University. William James Beal, professor at Michigan agricultural college, arranged this assistance. Bailey spent two years as herbarium assistant of Gray. He met Annette Smith, the daughter of a cattle breeder, at the Michigan agricultural college and in the same year married her. She bore Sara May Bailey in 1887 and Ethel Zoe Bailey in 1889. He in 1885 moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and in 1888 assumed the practical and experimental chair.

The academy of arts elected him an associate fellow in 1900. He founded the college of agriculture and in 1904 ably secured public funding. From 1903, he served as dean of New York state college of agriculture to 1913. In 1908, Theodore Roosevelt, president, appointed him chairman of the national commission on country life. Its Report of 1909 called for rebuilding a great agricultural civilization. He edited agriculture from 1907 to 1909 and continued with the Rural Textbook, Gardencraft, and Young Folks Library, series of manuals. He founded and edited the journals Country Life and the Cornell Countryman.

In 1913, he retired to devote more time as a private scholar to social and political issues. In 1917, people elected him as a member of the national academy of the United States.

He dominated the field of literature and wrote a collection of poetry and sixty-five books, which together sold more than a million copies, works; his efforts explained to laypeople, and he edited more than a hundred books of other authors and at least 1.3 thousand articles and more than one hundred papers in pure taxonomy. He also coined the words "cultivar," "cultigen," and "indigen." His most significant and lasting contributions studied cultivated plants.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liberty Hyde Bailey was struck, at the start of the 20th century, by the massive movement of people off the land and into cities and suburbs, and he laments the disconnection from the earth that results. A prescient work, Bailey argues that the rural and the agricultural elements in society are fundamental and should not become marginalized, as in fact happened in a dramatic way over the course of the 20th century. The work is significant for introducing the term 'biocentric', as he advocates replacing our anthropocentric world-view with a biocentric world-view. The book is concise and written in a personal, engaging style.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was written almost 100 years ago. Given that, one might think it was more of a historical document and perhaps outdated. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Bailey's writing reflects many current trends and thoughts regarding food, agricultural and conservation. His writing mirrors the thoughts and ideas of Wendell Berry and Norman Wirzba. Bailey writes about having a right relationship with the earth and creation. He talks about being in touch with our food and knowing where it comes from.

He is concerned with knowing about our food and giving thanks for where it comes from.

The Holy Earth is a book well worth reading today.

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ideas of The Holy Earth are still relevant today. I read the 100th Anniversary Edition edited by John Linstrom with a foreword by Wendell Berry, and I highly recommend it as the authoritative edition.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even 100+ years on, this book holds power. Having come to it long after reading Aldo Leopold, Gene Logsdon, Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, Bill McKibben, Joel Salatin, and Vandana Shiva, I found myself encountering every one of them, seeing how they were obviously influenced by Bailey and his writings. A true masterpiece, and required reading for anyone with an interest in land, land ethics, and the responsibility of man upon the earth.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deeply spiritual, deeply poetic. Why is nobody reading this man's work any more? From the 1920s, this slim tome presages the environmental movement of the 60s, and speaks volumes to the reality of 2024.

[Meera · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the name suggests, it is more or less like a Bible for Environmental History. Stating the very basics for anyone interested in understanding why we need to go back to nature.

[Len · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good thoughts, but give me Mr. Berry instead.

[Savonnah Mitchell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Destructive habits
make us deaf to holy songs.
Tend, listen, relate.

[Jai Hamid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the 100th anniversary edition | introduction by Barry Lopez. Anticipated many of the hopes and anxiety of food culture, 'back to nature' ethos, the 'farmer' as the ideal American. Lots of interest rhetoric reappropriation of "dominion" found in Genesis. Excellent.