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References for the History of Ecology

For the history of ESA, see ESA History References.
Resources for the History of Ecology

  • Bocking, Stephen. 1997. Ecologists and Environmental Politics: A History of Contemporary Ecology. Yale University Press, New Haven.
  • Croker, Robert A. 1991. Pioneer ecologist: the life and work of Victor Ernest Shelford, 1877-1968. Washington, D.C.
  • Egerton, Frank N. (ed.). 1977. History of American Ecology. Arno Press, New York
  • Egerton, Frank N. 2012. Roots of Ecology: Antiquity to Haeckel. University of California Press, Berkeley.
  • Golley, Frank B. 1993. A History of the Ecosystem Concept: More than the Sum of the Parts. Yale University Press, New Haven.
  • Kingsland, Sharon E. 2005. The Evolution of American Ecology 1890-2000. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
  • Levin, Simon A. 2010. The evolution of ecology.  Chronicle of Higher Education 56 (42): B9-B11.
  • McIntosh, Robert P. 1985. The Background in Ecology: Concept and Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
  • Odum, Eugene P. 1977. The emergence of ecology as a new integrative discipline. Science 15: 1289-1293.
  • Park, Orlando. 1945. Observations concerning the future of ecology. Ecology 26: 1-9.
  • Pearsall, W. H. 1964. The development of ecology in Britain. Journal of Ecology 52 (Supplement):1-12.
  • Real, Leslie A., and James H. Brown, editors. Foundations of Ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  • Salisbury, Sir Edward. 1964. The origin and early years of the British Ecological Society. Journal of Ecology 52 (Supplement):13-18.
  • Sears, Paul B. 1969. Plant Ecology.  Pp 124-131 in J. Ewan, ed. A Short History of Botany in the United States. Hafner, New York.
  • Worster, Donald. 1994. Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Online Sources
History of Ecology at Wikipedia
Chrono-Biographical Sketches by Charles H. Smith provide brief bios of many biogeographers, evolutionists, and ecologists, also listed by discipline. His listing of classic papers, which provides links to online sources, where available, may also be of interest.
Ecology and the American Environment, at the Library of Congress
Conservation Timeline, at the Library of Congress
History of Ecology at HighBeam Encyclopedia, R.P. McIntosh 2002
For book-length biographies, see our new list (in progress) of biographies and autobiographies of ecologists.
Selected Articles from the Bulletin

50 years of Invasion Ecology: Legacy of Charles Elton, v89#2, April 2008
Review: Henry Chandler Cowles, by Victor Cassidy, v89#2, April 2008
The Paper Trail: W. S. Cooper’s “Fundamentals of Vegetational Change” and a Fluent Mode of Thought for Ecology, v88#1, January 2007
Rachel Carson and Mid-Twentieth Century Ecology, v87#4, October 2006
What Makes an Ecological Icon?, v87#4, October 2006