I've been digging through backpacking, camping, wilderness survival, etc. books at the bookstore, but I'm finding that some of the older (1950s and earlier) camping books call "camping" the things that we call "wilderness survival" today. It seems that some common skills for that time have become last-ditch skills today.

Anybody have any good recommended older camping books?

Anything by Colin Fletcher (particularly the Complete Walker series) or Harry Roberts.

I don't know about "common skills" becoming last ditch skills today.. Realisticly I think the big difference between a lot of the stuff from the 50's and now is that back in the "good old days" (tm) you could go into the woods anywhere with an axe, and firestarting equipment, and make yourself reasonably comfortable. The problem these days is that in a lot of the areas we like to go backpacking, if 3 people a year did that many of the sensitive areas would be denuded for fire and lean to shelters quickly.. So it's the change to having more people around, and often needing to leave no trace, or as little as possible I think that has changed styles more than anything.

Completely agreed, phat.

But I've met backpackers who don't know how to sharpen a knife, prepare and maintain a fire when its despirately needed, cook dinner without a pack stove, etc.

Actually, there are a few resurgences that we seem to see today... Tarp camping, for example. Saves weight, but is hardly a new concept.

I'm a fan of knowing how to get by without the top-of-the-line gear, that pre-programmed GPS, and all of the other frills that seem to have taken the place of genuine woodsmanship in so many ways.