Books & Writing

In 2008 I published a book called Rewild or Die. It is a collection of essays and blogs written by my muse and alter-ego, “Urban Scout”. In this book Urban Scout explored the philosophy of the emerging rewilding renaissance, in which civilized humans are thought to be “domesticated” through thousands of years of sedentary, agrarian life. This way of life is believed to be the root of all environmental destruction and social injustice. Rewilding is the process of un-doing this domestication, and restoring healthy, biologically diverse communities. Using thoughtful, humorously cynical and at times angry prose, Urban Scout explored how the ideology of civilization clashes with the wild and wild peoples, and how thinking, feeling and most importantly living wild is the only way to reach true sustainability. In the summer of 2011 I went on a West Coast book tour. Due to requests from readers, I decided to re-release Rewild or Die. I finally had a copy-editor go through the book, changed the cover, and slightly altered some of the text, and included a new foreword. [Buy it Here]

Read a review of the book at CultureChange.org here.

I am also working on another book, Rewilding 101: How to Reclaim and Restore The Wild Within and Without. This is a massive re-write of Rewild or Die. I’m updating it with more current ideas, taking out Urban Scout’s characteristic harsh tone, and am organizing the pieces from random blog entries into a more cohesive book. I decided to put it up on here as I work on it because it’s going to take me a long while to finish (I’m running a non-profit and teaching classes!). Thanks to all the people who have encouraged me along the way. I think you will be very pleased with Rewilding 101: How to Reclaim and Restore The Wild Within and Without. I am so far.

Praise for Urban Scout

When I feel like surfing a bit nearer the edge, I check out Scout’s latest. It’s irreverent, angry, informative, and sometimes he’s not even nice. Urban Scout is out there exploring and inventing rewilding and contemporary tribal skills with style, and I admire that he doesn’t claim to know it all. Scout always takes me down an unanticipated path. We civilized folk have forgotten what he’s trying to remember for us.
– Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture

It’s the Urban in Urban Scout that’s key, I’d say. Reminding us that we can make a start from wherever we are, on the joyful trek away from civilization. This site is rich and wide-ranging. Full of stimulating takes, methods, communications – not forgetting some humor. Bravo!
– John Zerzan, Editor Green Anarchy Magazine, Author of Future Primitive

Urban Scout combines passion, intelligence, and a quirky sense of humor, and puts it all at the feet of the most important cause any of us could undertake: rewilding ourselves, our environments, and our relationships. And he even manages to look cool while doing it.
– Jason Godesky from The Tribe of Anthropik