Socio-environmental research has a rich legacy. Scholarship has evolved to be more interdisciplinary, as long before. Sustainability science builds on von Humboldt, Marsh, and Meadows. Research on social–ecological systems research is informed by Ostrom; resilience by Holling; vulnerability by White, Sen, and Beck; and CHANS by Marsh and Moran. Ecological economics emphasizes the economy as a subset of the Earth, leveraging Ricardo, Jevons, and Daly. Ecosystem services research, informed by Ehrlich and Odum, quantifies benefits from ecosystems. Industrial ecology views industrial systems ecologically, as done by Graedel, Ayres, and Kneese. Political ecology focuses on power relations, as did Marx, Polanyi, Shiva, and Blaikie and Brookfield. Environmental justice, pioneered by Bullard, considers unequal benefits and harms. Other systems research focuses on a given context, as on cities (Childe, Mumford, and McDonnell and Pickett), land (Melville), and food (Liangji, Malthus, Boserup, and Ho). Integrated assessments build on Meadows. Planetary and Anthropocene perspectives focus on the global scale (see Hutchinson, Boff). Legacy readings can help frame socio-environmental relationships and enrich collaborations.