THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS from published papers in medical journals that support the claims that going barefoot is healthy and that footwear is entirely unnecessary and, in many cases, detrimental to foot health.

This list of papers is by no means comprehensive or exhaustive. This list is the result of what some Society for Barefoot Living members have taken their personal time to research, photocopy, and transcribe the text.

In chronological order:

• Samuel B. Shulman. "Survey in China and India of Feet That Have Never Worn Shoes," The Journal of the National Association of Chiropodists, 49, 1949, pp. 26-30.

• Steel F. Stewart. "Footgear -- Its History, Uses and Abuses," Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 88, 1972, pp. 119-130.

• Steven E. Robbins and Adel M. Hanna. "Running-related injury prevention through barefoot adaptations," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 19(2), 1987, pp. 148-156.

• Steven E. Robbins, Adel M. Hanna, and Gerard J. Gouw. "Overload protection: avoidance response to heavy plantar surface loading," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 20(1), 1988, pp. 85-92.

• Steven E. Robbins, Gerard J. Gouw, and Adel M. Hanna. "Running-related injury prevention through innate impact-moderating behavior," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 21(2), 1989, pp. 130-139.

• Steven E. Robbins and Gerard J. Gouw. "Athletic Footwear and Chronic Overloading," Sports Medicine, 9(2), 1990, pp. 76-85.

• Steven E. Robbins and Gerard J. Gouw. "Athletic footwear: unsafe due to perceptual illusions," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 23(2), 1991, pp. 217-224.

• Udaya Bhaskara Rao and Benjamin Joseph. "The Influence of Footwear on the Prevalence of Flat Foot," The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 74B(4), 1992, pp. 525-527.

• Steven E. Robbins, Gerard J. Gouw, Jacqueline McClaran, and Edward Waked. "Protective Sensation of the Plantar Aspect of the Foot," Foot & Ankle, 14(6), 1993, pp. 347-352.

• Steven Robbins, Edward Waked, and Ron Rappel. "Ankle taping improves proprioception before and after exercise in young men," British Journal of Sports Medicine, 29(4), 1995, pp. 242-247.

• Alex Stacoff, Jürg Steger, Edgar Stüssi, and Christoph Reinschmidt. "Lateral stability in sideward cutting movements," Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 28(3), 1996, pp. 350-358.