The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
In "The Unsettling of America" Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. Today's agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families, and as a nation we are thus more estranged from the land—from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it. Sadly, as Berry notes in the afterword to this new edition, his arguments and observations are still relevant today. We continue to suffer loss of community, the...
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Since its publication by Sierra Club Books in 1977, The Unsettling of America has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural development and spiritual discipline. Today’s agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land—from the intimate knowledge, love, and care of it. Sadly, as Berry notes in his Afterword to this third edition, his arguments and observations are more relevant than ever. We continue to suffer loss of community, the devaluation of human work, and the destruction of nature under an economic system dedicated to the mechanistic pursuit of products and profits. Although “this book has not had the happy fate of being proved wrong,” Berry writes, there are good people working “to make something comely and enduring of our life on this earth.” Wendell Berry is one of those people, writing and working, as ever, with passion, eloquence, and conviction.
Ch. 1The Unsettling of America3Ch. 2The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character17Ch. 3The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Agriculture27Ch. 4The Agricultural Crisis as a Crisis of Culture39Ch. 5Living in the Future: The "Modern" Agricultural Ideal51Ch. 6The Use of Energy81Ch. 7The Body and the Earth97Ch. 8Jefferson, Morrill, and the Upper Crust143Ch. 9Margins171Notes225Afterword to the Third Edition229
