The Unsettling of America: Culture & AgricultureSince 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. |
Contents
The Unsettling of America | 3 |
The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Character | 17 |
The Ecological Crisis as a Crisis of Agriculture | 27 |
Copyright | |
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acres agri agribusiness Amish animals become Billard body Butz C. S. LEWIS chemicals complex consumer corn cost Creation creatures crisis crop crop rotation culture dependent destroy destruction disciplines disease Draft Horse earth ecological economic energy erosion experts exploitive farm farmers farmland feed fertility fidelity fields fossil fuel future geologic fault Hideous Strength horses household human Ibid industrial interest issue Ivan Illich Jefferson kind labor land land-grant college less living look machines manure margins marriage means mechanical ment mind modern moral nature necessary nurture Odysseus official once organic organic farm percent plants plow pollution possible practical preserve problems production Professor Heady responsibility revolution rural sense sexual simply Sir Albert Howard skill social soil sort soul sources specialist standard sumers survive things Thomas Jefferson tion tractor trees understand waste wilderness