In Trees: An Exploration

From the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller On Trails comes a wondrous new journey through the wilds of nature and the gnarls of history, exploring how trees--from the mightiest sequoia to the tiniest bonsai--can teach us to grow wise.

To truly grasp the wisdom of a tree, you need to begin thinking like one...

One day, on a whim, Robert Moor set out to climb a tree near his home--unwittingly embarking on what would become a decade-long, globe-spanning adventure of intellectual and spiritual transformation. Pursuing the hidden wisdom of trees, he scales to the very top of a giant sequoia while filming a nature documentary with David Attenborough; he treks through swamps in Papua to reach a treehouse-dwelling tribe of hunter-gatherers; and he journeys to a remote research camp in Tanzania, where he spends a memorable night sleeping in a chimpanzee nest, seeking to understand our deep evolutionary history. Eventually, having gained a radical new outlook on both our gnarled past and our ever-branching future, he joins an intrepid clan of climate activists risking everything to halt construction of a new oil pipeline and save an ancient forest.

Along the way, Moor learns the art of "tree-thinking," which, he discovers, has the power to break open some of humanity's oldest questions: What is the secret to truly growing old? How do we set down deeper roots in an increasingly chaotic world? Most importantly, how should we--as individuals, as communities, as stewards of the earth--live?

A witty and relentlessly curious excursion through philosophy, history, and science, what begins as an ode to the miracle of trees blossoms into a joyous, daring, fiercely hopeful endeavor to arborize humanity.