Astonished By Beauty | The Essential Practice of Natural History

This is an in-person event at the Linnean Society. There will be a drinks reception after the lecture upstairs in our library, and (Copies of Astonished By Beauty, not widely available in the UK, will be available for purchase after the lecture.)

Natural history (Historia Naturalis) — literally, the story of nature — is the oldest continuous human endeavor. Too often perceived as a marginal, perhaps antiquated approach to ecological science, natural history is more appropriately seen as the practice of attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world. As such, it is larger and more fundamental than science alone.

There have never been people without the practice of natural history — but there has never been a time when natural history practice was less common. This slide toward inattention is easily reversible, however, because we literally evolved to pay attention. The practice of natural history, besides providing the empirical basis for natural sciences, also underlies successful conservation efforts, and is the root of healthy human individuals and societies.

In this presentation, lushly illustrated with photos from his wide-ranging field explorations, Tom Fleischner will share excerpts from his new book, Astonished By Beauty: A Field Guide to the Practice of Paying Attention.

Thomas Lowe Fleischner, a naturalist and conservation biologist, was the founding director of the Natural History Institute in Prescott, Arizona, USA, and is Faculty Emeritus at Prescott College. The author or editor of five books and former Chair of the Natural History Section of the Ecological Society of America, he has coordinated efforts to assert the educational importance of field studies, and to recognize the high biodiversity values of the Mogollon Highlands Ecoregion of the American Southwest.

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Concessions

Please buy the concession ticket if you are any of the below:

• 65 years of age, or over
• Under 26 years of age
• Currently in receipt of UK government benefit (including, but not limited to, Income Based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit and Housing Benefit, and Universal Credit).
• Currently in full-time education.

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