In this symposium, six active historians with stories to tell will report on diverse topics from diverse points of view, hinting at the range of ongoing investigation. Two revisit major figures from early 20th century American ecology. One discusses the career of Henry Chandler Cowles; another, Frederick Clements, showing how historical investigation informed his community succession theories. A third looks at ecologists’ participation in reducing nature to non-human phenomena while a fourth examines the problems and motivations of ecological scaling. The fifth analyzes the stability-diversity-complexity debates, and another uses “ecodoom” horror films to gain a gender perspective on behavioral ecology. Considering these historical perspectives may change the way you look at ecology. All six will participate in a panel to address questions and comments.