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The Democracy of Species

In twenty short books, Penguin brings you the classics of the environmental movement. 
 
In The Democracy of Species Robin Wall Kimmerer guides us towards a more reciprocal, grateful and joyful relationship with our animate earth, from the wild leeks in the field to the deer in the woods. 
 
Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As life on Earth has become irrevocably altered by humans, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend the planet, and affirm our place at the heart of its restoration. Their words have endured through the decades, becoming the classics of a movement. Together, these books show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.

Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental movement today. 
 
In The Democracy of Species Robin Wall Kimmerer guides us towards a more reciprocal, grateful and joyful relationship with our animate earth, from the wild leeks in the field to the deer in the woods.

A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses

Gathering Moss

'Kimmerer blends, with deep attentiveness and musicality, science and personal insights to tell the overlooked story of the planet's oldest plants' Guardian 
 
'Bewitching ... a masterwork ... a glittering read in its entirety' Maria Popova, Brainpickings 
 
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. 
 
 In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. 
 
 Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

Grounding, calming, and quietly revolutionary.

I give daily thanks for Robin Wall Kimmerer for being a font of endless knowledge, both mental and spiritual.

Gathering Moss is fantastic and offers an extraordinary point of view on the natural world

Soulful, accessible... informed by both western science and indigenous teachings alike ... Kimmerer blends, with deep attentiveness and musicality, science and personal insights to tell the overlooked story of the planet's oldest plants

Beneath your feet, barely visible to the eye, is another world: a rainforest in miniature ... Read Kimmerer's book and you're unlikely ever again to waste precious gardening time scraping moss from paving stones.

Beautiful ... Her scientific training and knowledge of plants from her Potawatomi heritage create a unique lens, teaching us how to look and watch... Reading this has made me stop to wondrously admire any patch of moss I come across.

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. 
 
 In these interwoven essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us. 
 
 Drawing on her experiences as a scientist, a mother, and a Native American, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as within the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

Braiding Sweetgrass

'A hymn of love to the world ... A journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love 
 
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two ways of knowledge together. 
 
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings - asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass - offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

It is beautiful and unusual, the rare book that might cause you to forever see the world a little differently

Remarkable, wise and potentially paradigm-shifting

Braiding Sweetgrass is the book we all need right now. It is a vision of a new world, of reciprocity, gratitude and seeing the living world for what it is: an abundance of gifts. Kimmerer is uniquely placed to braid indigenous knowledge with scientific learnings and she does it with kindness, ingenuity and a poet's prose. It is truly the text for our times.

An extraordinary book, showing how the factual, objective approach of science can be enriched by the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. It is the way she captures beauty that I love the most - the images of giant cedars and wild strawberries, a forest in the rain and a meadow of fragrant sweetgrass will stay with you long after you read the last page

One of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

Reading this book was like looking at the world afresh. Radical, hopeful, honest and wise, Robin Wall Kimmerer has woven us a precious heartsong for difficult times

A journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise

Robin Wall Kimmerer opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life we are used to naming and imagining as inanimate.

In a world where only six percent of mammalian biomass on the planet now comprises of wild animals, I longed for books that pressed me up against the inhuman, that connected me to an inhuman world. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer moved me to actual tears

With deep compassion and graceful prose, Robin Wall Kimmerer encourages readers to consid­er the ways that our lives and language weave through the natural world. A mesmerizing story­teller, she shares legends from her Potawatomi ancestors to illustrate the culture of gratitude in which we all should live

In Braiding Sweetgrass, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer tackles everything from sustainable agriculture to pond scum as a reflection of her Potawatomi heritage, which carries a stewardship 'which could not be taken by history: the knowing that we belonged to the land.' . . . It's a book absorbed with the unfolding of the world to observant eyes?that sense of discovery that draws us in.

The gift of Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is that she provides readers the ability to see a very common world in uncommon ways, or, rather, in ways that have been commonly held but have recently been largely discarded. She puts forth the notion that we ought to be interacting in such a way that the land should be thankful for the people

Beautifully written . . . Anyone who enjoys reading about natural history, botany, protecting na­ture, or Native American culture will love this book

Professor and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer knows that the answer to all forms of ecological unbalance have long been hidden in plain sight, told in the language of plants and animals, minerals and elements. She draws on her own heritage . . . pairing science with Indigenous principles and storytelling to advocate for a renewed connection between human beings and nature.

Kimmerer eloquently makes the case that by observing and celebrating our reciprocal relationship with the natural world, one can gain greater ecological consciousness.

Braiding Sweetgrass is instructive poetry. Robin Wall Kimmerer has put the spiritual relationship that Chief Seattle called the 'web of life' into writing. Industrial societies lack the understanding of the interrelationships that bind all living things?this book fills that void. I encourage one and all to read these instructions.

Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper, Onondaga Nation and Indigenous Environmental Leader

Hands down the best book on ecology I've read

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert). 
 
Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings-asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass-offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

John Burgoyne

The time you’ll spend reading this book will, like the time spent picking wild berries, nourish your soul, heart, and mind. I hope to give this book to everybody

Compelling ... A moving meditation on what a giving tree can teach us about building a fairer society

The Serviceberry is a gem of a book. It invites us to think again about economics, and imagine another way of relating to one another based on generosity, kindness, interconnectedness, and restraint. The book reminds us that how we think, and the stories we tell, shape how we live – and it’s high time we thought and lived differently, with new stories, about our place in nature.

A meditation on communing with nature and cultivating connections with one another … Kimmerer makes a convincing argument, wrapped in beautiful language and vivid imagery

A sweet reminder of our interdependence

A gorgeous meditation on reciprocity and abundance in nature ... a lyrical call to action

An uplifting, open-hearted little book that asks us to reframe our relationships in the world as ones of easy generosity. To be wealthy, explains Robin Wall Kimmerer, is to have enough to share: give all that you have, and take only what you need

A masterful reflection on ecology and culture … startling in its simplicity. Kimmerer invites readers to envision a life that embraces the gift economy—one built on reciprocity, collective well-being, and care … Her beautiful and hopeful prose leaves readers feeling sated, galvanized, and keenly aware of the world around them

Vivid and poetic, and also fierce… An elegant distillation of Kimmerer’s political ideas

This wise little book asks us to escape our doomed extractive economy, learning from the cooperative circularity of living systems and the sustainable stewardship of indigenous cultures

Robin Wall Kimmerer's call to accommodate ecology and moneyless exchange into our economics is beautiful, radical and true. Her persuasive argument is a gift in itself

Lyrical, personable … invites readers into worlds of possibility … this sweet offering builds on Kimmerer’s ideas about the gift economy and how Indigenous wisdom might inform it

At once incredibly simple and incredibly profound - a real gift

The Serviceberry shows us the gift economy in action in rural and in urban settings – it is a source of powerful inspiration, and an essential read. It offers each of us a way to navigate, lovingly and practically, the dark times in which we’re living and in so doing, creating a matrix of healing

Kimmerer’s warm, inviting style feels like you are having a conversation as you pick serviceberries… the book offers a good dose of optimism and encouragement, which makes it a lovely read and a potentially transformative one

Vivid and poetic, and also fierce … an elegant distillation of some of Kimmerer’s political ideas

A wonderful little book which imagines a kinder, sharing world where everybody has enough to eat and nature is respected and cherished

The Serviceberry builds on the blend of Indigenous and western ecological thought that has made Kimmerer – unexpectedly – one of the best known environmental writers working today … The book is a call to action for ordinary people everywhere

It’s a short, tart, powerful book - much like the berry it is named after

In The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer has given us a lucid, clear-eyed, perspective-shifting manifesto for creating gift economies and realising the abundance of the earth's gifts. She challenges bogus mindsets of scarcity while proffering joy, wonder and relationship. This is a taut, short Trojan horse of radical love and radical thinking I'll return to again and again. If those in power read and truly understand this book, our world could look very different. The Serviceberry world is the world I want to live in

A small book with a profound impact

Good Morning America, '10 Books to Read this Native American Heritage Month'

The Serviceberry picks up where Braiding Sweetgrass left off, once again using the interconnectedness of nature as a guiding light to reimagine a path forward for the future… The message of The Servicceberry is clear: Our individualistic, pro-competition, consumption-focused capitalist economy is inherently flawed and is leading us down a destructive and lonely path…Kimmerer creates a bighearted version of millions of little circular economies in which people learn how to foster kinship, 'recognize enoughness,' and appreciate what Mother Earth provides

The Serviceberry is a psalm for the natural world and a profound exploration of how we can reframe our relationship with nature and with others through gift economies… Kimmerer’s blend of scientific observation, memoir, and philosophical reflection makes The Serviceberry a compelling read that transcends mere ecological treatise. As our planet grapples with environmental challenges, Kimmerer’s vision of a non­extractive, reciprocal relationship with nature offers a necessary alternative

The Serviceberry is bound to appeal to the readers who made Braiding Sweetgrass a more-than-2-million-copies-sold phenomenon. Like Braiding Sweetgrass, The Serviceberry draws on traditional Native ways of caring for the land (Kimmerer is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation). And, like Braiding Sweetgrass, it uses plain language to demonstrate truths about the way all of us live in the world

A novella-length meditation on the abundance that sharing and mutual exchange can create…The Serviceberry continues a long tradition of naturalistic writing about interdependence in the wild…an impassioned call not just to return to the natural webs of exchange that are our birthright‚ but to recapture the fulfillment that stems from interdependence

Under a hundred pages, The Serviceberry is beautifully written with illustrations by John Burgoyne. Like me, you might pass the afternoon reading the book in one sitting, entranced by the author’s hopeful words for how to combat ecological destruction and the isolation and purposelessness so many people experience in this digitally oriented, self-interested world

Certain to be acclaimed as one of the best books of the year

A delightful new book that reflects on the natural world and how we can derive lessons on gratitude, reciprocity and community to flourish mutually

Drawing from both Indigenous knowledge and ecological science, Robin Wall Kimmerer, known for her masterwork Braiding Sweetgrass, demonstrates how serviceberries support biodiversity while having historically provided sustenance to Native American communities… Through careful observation of serviceberry ecology, Kimmerer constructs a compelling case for economic systems based on reciprocity

Kimmerer’s deeply rooted, wise, and inspiring reflections coalesce into a fresh approach to connecting ecology, economics, and ethics… [Readers] will learn a lot about ecological ways of living from Kimmerer's nature-rooted wisdom and beautifully clear writing

An Economy of Gifts and Abundance

'This book will nourish your soul, heart, and mind' Anthony Doerr 
 
As Indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most? 
 
Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry’s relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth—its abundance of sweet, juicy berries—to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution insures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, “Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency.” 
 
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE AUTUMN BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, TIME, OPRAH DAILY, LIT HUB, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BOOKPAGE

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Praise for The Serviceberry

The time you’ll spend reading this book will, like the time spent picking wild berries, nourish your soul, heart, and mind. I hope to give this book to everybody

Compelling ... A moving meditation on what a giving tree can teach us about building a fairer society

The Serviceberry is a gem of a book. It invites us to think again about economics, and imagine another way of relating to one another based on generosity, kindness, interconnectedness, and restraint. The b ...

The time you’ll spend reading this book will, like the time spent picking wild berries, nourish your soul, heart, and mind. I hope to give this book to everybody

Compelling ... A moving meditation on what a giving tree can teach us about building a fairer society

The Serviceberry is a gem of a book. It invites us to think again about economics, and imagine another way of relating to one another based on generosity, kindness, interconnectedness, and restraint. The b ...

The time you’ll spend reading this book will, like the time spent picking wild berries, nourish your soul, heart, and mind. I hope to give this book to everybody

Compelling ... A moving meditation on what a giving tree can teach us about building a fairer society

The Serviceberry is a gem of a book. It invites us to think again about economics, and imagine another way of relating to one another based on generosity, kindness, interconnectedness, and restraint. The b ...

Books by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Articles featuring Robin Wall Kimmerer

Uplifting climate books to inspire hope about the planet’s future

Books that feel like a warm hug

How books help Lucy Dacus write music

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