Books like Crossing Open Ground

As an collection of journalistic pieces and essays, Crossing Open Ground is slightly less consistent in its overwhelming awe than Lopez' other works. His earlier, more explicitly journalistic pieces seem less impressive than the later works, which tend to be the ones that spend more time drawing connections and pondering. There are several of the latter kind of work in this collection, and they are all gems among the accumulated sediment of modern thinking about the human place in nature. Essays like "Landscape and Narrative" and "The Passing Wisdom of Birds" stand out; "Children in the Woods," "Searching for Ancestors," and "Yukon-Charley" are nearly as crucial. Barry Lopez has two incredible gifts as a an intellectual writing about his particularly important topic. His abilities as a prose stylist, informed by wide and deep reading and aided by an apparent habit of thoughtful revision, convey his message in deeply resonant language. His message, his peculiar perspective, is of course what makes the resonance stick. His viewpoint is deeply radical without being ideological or narrow. It embraces the dignity of so much of human lives while acknowledging the tragedy of so much of modern industrial life. He's the best. Between himself, Derrick Jensen, and David Abram, you're probably set on getting a great modern perspective on environmental issues.