The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry
Collected here for the first time, the essential essays from Wendell Berry's writings on agrarianism, agriculture, and community.\ Together these twenty-one essays offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. Grouped around five themes—geobiography, an agrarian critique of culture, agrarian fundamentals, agrarian economics, and agrarian religion—they provide an excellent introduction to the wide range of Wendell Berry's work. They also demonstrate that Berry's writing promotes...
Search in google:
The Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty-one essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. These essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture. Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost? What are the forces of social disintegration and how might they be reversed? How might men and women live together in ways that benefit both? And, how does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments? Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality, and happiness of the whole community of creation. Library Journal Writer and farmer Berry has long been an inspiration to the contemporary agrarian movement and a guiding light to people who care deeply about the health of their land and their communities. In his numerous books of essays, he has thoughtfully and articulately shown how the current consumer-based, profit-driven industrial society not only destroys our natural world but also increasingly harms our social and personal well-being. The 21 essays in this collection, written over the past two decades, provide both a splendid introduction to Berry's work and a stimulating compendium for those already familiar with it. These are beautifully crafted essays, replete with social criticism, righteous anger, moral guidance, and lyrical wording. Above all, they contain a reverence for the beauty and complexity of our natural world and a call to be good stewards of the earth and our limited resources. Berry states that we do not need to rely on constant technological progress to improve our future: "If we take care of the world of the present, the future will have received full justice from us." Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. Ilse Heidmann, Olympia, WA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Introduction: The Challenge of Berry's Agrarian VisionPt. IA Geobiography"A Native Hill"3Pt. IIUnderstanding Our Cultural CrisisThe Unsettling of America35Racism and the Economy47"Feminism, the Body, and the Machine"65"Think Little"81Pt. IIIThe Agrarian Basis for an Authentic Culture"The Body and the Earth"93"Men and Women in Search of Common Ground"135"Health Is Membership"144"Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community"159"People, Land, and Community"182"Conservation and Local Economy"195Pt. IVAgrarian Economics"Economy and Pleasure"207"Two Economies"219"The Whole Horse"236"The Idea of a Local Economy"249"A Bad Big Idea"262"Solving for Pattern"267Pt. VAgrarian Religion"The Use of Energy"279"The Gift of Good Land"293"Christianity and the Survival of Creation"305"The Pleasures of Eating"321Acknowledgments329
\ Library JournalWriter and farmer Berry has long been an inspiration to the contemporary agrarian movement and a guiding light to people who care deeply about the health of their land and their communities. In his numerous books of essays, he has thoughtfully and articulately shown how the current consumer-based, profit-driven industrial society not only destroys our natural world but also increasingly harms our social and personal well-being. The 21 essays in this collection, written over the past two decades, provide both a splendid introduction to Berry's work and a stimulating compendium for those already familiar with it. These are beautifully crafted essays, replete with social criticism, righteous anger, moral guidance, and lyrical wording. Above all, they contain a reverence for the beauty and complexity of our natural world and a call to be good stewards of the earth and our limited resources. Berry states that we do not need to rely on constant technological progress to improve our future: "If we take care of the world of the present, the future will have received full justice from us." Highly recommended for public and academic libraries. Ilse Heidmann, Olympia, WA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ A collection of 21 previously published essays by social critic Berry. Berry argues that the increasing urbanization of our culture and the increasing industrialization of our agriculture are two of the most dangerous trends attacking American's ability to lead authentic lives. He promotes a new vision of American agrarianism that addresses culture, economics, and religious values. His essays are accompanied by an introductory explanation of his overall thought penned by Wirzba (philosophy, Georgetown College). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
