What Are People For?: Essays - Berry, Wendell Review & Synopsis

 Synopsis

Ranging from America's insatiable consumerism and household economies to literary subjects and America's attitude toward waste, here Berry gracefully navigates from one topic to the next. He speaks candidly about the ills plaguing America and the growing gap between people and the land. Despite the somber nature of these essays, Berry's voice and prose provide an underlying sense of faith and hope. He frames his reflections with poetic responsibility, standing up as a firm believer in the power of the human race not only to fix its past mistakes but to build a future that will provide a better life for all.

Review

Wendell Berry is the author of more than fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He was most recently awarded the Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Louis Bromfield Society Award. For more than forty years he has lived and farmed with his wife Tanya in Kentucky.These essays convey a deep concern for the American economic system and the gluttonous American consumer. In a country drawl that is the essence of the endangered American farmer, Berry talks to the listener as one would talk to a next-door neighbor. Never preachy, he comes across as someone offering sound advice. He speaks sadly at the greedy consumption of this country's natural resources and the grim consequences Americans must face if current economic practices do not change drastically. Through his eloquent reading of his nature prose, Berry offers rays of hope in an otherwise bleak forecast of America's future. Berry's program presents convincing steps for America's agricultural and cultural survival. M.P.T. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

What Are People For?

Ranging from America’s insatiable consumerism and household economies to literary subjects and America’s attitude toward waste, here Berry gracefully navigates from one topic to the next. He speaks candidly about the ills plaguing America and the growing gap between people and the land. Despite the somber nature of these essays, Berry’s voice and prose provide an underlying sense of faith and hope. He frames his reflections with poetic responsibility, standing up as a firm believer in the power of the human race not only to fix its past mistakes but to build a future that will provide a better life for all.

He speaks candidly about the ills plaguing America and the growing gap between people and the land. Despite the somber nature of these essays, Berry’s voice and prose provide an underlying sense of faith and hope."

Wendell Berry: Essays 1969-1990 (LOA #316)

The first volume of the Library of America's definitive two-volume selection of the nonfiction writings of our greatest living advocate for sustainable culture. Writing with elegance and clarity, Wendell Berry is a compassionate and compelling voice for our time of political and cultural distrust and division, whether expounding the joys and wisdom of nonindustrial agriculture, relishing the pleasure of eating food produced locally by people you know, or giving voice to a righteous contempt for hollow innovation. He is our most important writer on the cultural crisis posed by industrialization and mass consumerism, and the vital role of rural, sustainable farming in preserving the planet as well as our national character. Now, in celebration of Berry's extraordinary six-decade-long career, Library of America presents a two-volume selection of his nonfiction writings prepared in close consultation with the author. This first volume collects thirty-three essays from nine different books, including his first, The Long-Legged House (1969), What are People For? (1990), with its still provocative essay "Why I am Not Going to Buy a Computer," and the complete text of his now classic The Unsettling of America (1975), whose argument about the enormous ecological, economic, and human costs of industrial agriculture has, as the author notes, "not had the happy fate of being proved wrong." Berry's essays remain timely, even urgent today, and will resonate with anyone interested in our relationship to the natural world and especially with a younger, politically engaged generation invested in the future welfare of the planet. INCLUDES: The Unsettling of America AND SELECTIONS FROM The Long-Legged House The Hidden Wound A Continuous Harmony Recollected Essays The Gift of Good Land Standing by Words Home Economics What Are People For? LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

This first volume collects thirty-three essays from nine different books, including his first, The Long-Legged House (1969), What are People For? (1990), with its still provocative essay "Why I am Not Going to Buy a Computer," and the ..."

Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community

In this new collection of essays, Wendell Berry continues his work as one of America's most necessary social commentators. With wisdom and clear, ringing prose, he tackles head-on some of the most difficult problems which face us as we near the end of the twentieth century. Berry begins the title essay with the Anita Hill–Clarence Thomas hearings as an example of a “process that has been well established and well respected for at least two hundred years—the process . . . of community disintegration.” Community, a “locally understood interdependence of local people, local culture, local economy, and local nature,” bound by trust and affection, is “being destroyed by the desires and ambitions of both private and public life which for want of the intervention of community interests, are also destroying one another.” He then moves on to elucidate connections between sexual brutality and economic brutality, and the role of art and free speech. Berry forcefully addresses America's unabashed pursuit of self-liberation, which he says is “still the strongest force now operating in our society.” As individuals turn away from their community, they conform to a “rootless and placeless monoculture of commercial expectations and products,” buying into the very economic system which is destroying the earth, our communities, and all they represent. Throughout the book Berry asks, What is appropriate? What is worth conserving from our past and preserving in our present? What is it to be human and truly connected to others? What does it mean to be free?

In this new collection of essays, Wendell Berry continues his work as one of America's most necessary social commentators."

Standing by Words

In print again after twenty-one years, this collection of six essays by the celebtrated environmentalist explores the attacks on language occuring within American culture, covering conversation, advertising, and poetry, among other topics. Reprint.

In print again after twenty-one years, this collection of six essays by the celebtrated environmentalist explores the attacks on language occuring within American culture, covering conversation, advertising, and poetry, among other topics."

Another Turn of the Crank

""A Kentucky farmer and writer, and perhaps the great moral essayist of our day, Berry has produced one of his shortest but also most powerful volumes."—The New York Review of Books "The rarest (and highest) of literary classes consist of that small group of authors who are absolutely inimitable . . . One of the half–dozen living American authors who belongs in this class is Wendell Berry."—Los Angeles Times "Berry is a philosopher, poet, novelist, and an essayist in the tradition of Emerson and Thoreau . . . like Thoreau, he marches to a different drummer, a drummer we would do well to be aware of, if not to march to."—San Francisco Chronicle From modern health care to the practice of forestry, from local focus to national resolve, Wendell Berry argues, there can never be a separation between global ecosystems and human communities—the two are intricately connected, and the health and survival of one depends upon the other. Provocative, intimate, and thoughtful, Another Turn of the Crank reaches to the heart of Berry's concern and vision for the future, for America and for the world.

Provocative, intimate, and thoughtful, Another Turn of the Crank reaches to the heart of Berry's concern and vision for the future, for America and for the world."

Wendell Berry: Essays 1993-2017 (LOA #317)

The second volume of the Library of America's definitive two-volume selection of the nonfiction writings of our greatest living advocate for sustainable culture. Writing with elegance and clarity, Wendell Berry is a compassionate and compelling voice for our time of political and cultural distrust and division, whether expounding the joys and wisdom of nonindustrial agriculture, relishing the pleasure of eating food produced locally by people you know, or giving voice to a righteous contempt for hollow innovation. He is our most important writer on the cultural crisis posed by industrialization and mass consumerism, and the vital role of rural, sustainable farming in preserving the planet as well as our national character. Now, in celebration of Berry's extraordinary six-decade-long career, Library of America presents a two-volume selection of his nonfiction writings prepared in close consultation with the author. In this second volume, forty-four essays from ten works turn to issues of political and social debate--big government, science and religion, and the meaning of citizenship following the tragedy of 9/11. Also included is his Jefferson Lecture to the National Endowment for the Humanities, "It All Turns on Affection" (2012). Berry's essays remain timely, even urgent today, and will resonate with anyone interested in our relationship to the natural world and especially with a younger, politically engaged generation invested in the future welfare of the planet. INCLUDES: Life is a Miracle AND SELECTIONS FROM Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community Another Turn of the Crank Citizenship Papers The Way of Ignorance What Matters? Imagination in Place It All Turns on Affection Our Only World The Art of Loading Brush LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

In this second volume, forty-four essays from ten works turn to issues of political and social debate--big government, science and religion, and the meaning of citizenship following the tragedy of 9/11."

The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Contains one hundred poems by award-winning American poet Wendell Berry, drawn from nine previous collections.

Contains one hundred poems by award-winning American poet Wendell Berry, drawn from nine previous collections."

The Art of the Commonplace

"Here is a human being speaking with calm and sanity out of the wilderness. We would do well to hear him." —The Washington Post Book World The Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. Grouped around five themes—an agrarian critique of culture, agrarian fundamentals, agrarian economics, agrarian religion, and geobiography—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.

The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry Wendell Berry Norman Wirzba. Acknowledgments. Several of Wendell Berry's essays have appeared in multiple texts. ... Another Turn of the Crank (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint Press, 1995, pp."

The Hidden Wound

Argues that white racism has been detrimental to whites as well as Blacks, discusses the implications of slavery, and looks at the impact of slavery on the author's life

Argues that white racism has been detrimental to whites as well as Blacks, discusses the implications of slavery, and looks at the impact of slavery on the author's life"

Life is a Miracle

"In Life is a Miracle, Wendell Berry urges us to begin a "conversation out of school." Believing we are on a course of arrogant and dangerous behavior in science and other intellectual disciplines, this proclamation against modern superstition recommends a shift in priorities and goals. Berry observes, "it is clearly bad for the sciences and the arts to be divided into 'two cultures.' It is bad for scientists to be working without a sense of obligation to cultural tradition. It is bad for artists and scholars in the humanities to be working without a sense of obligation to the world beyond the artifacts of culture." They must be the subjects of one complex conversation."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"In Life is a Miracle, Wendell Berry urges us to begin a "conversation out of school."

A Continuous Harmony

The title of this book is taken from an account by Thomas F. Hornbein on his travels in the Himalayas. "It seemed to me," Horenbein wrote, "that here man lived in continuous harmony with the land, as much as briefly a part of it as all its other occupants." Wendell Berry's second collection of essays, A Continuous Harmony was first published in 1972, and includes the seminal "Think Little," which was printed in The Last Whole Earth Catalogue and reprinted around the globe, and the splendid centerpiece, "Discipline and Hope," an insightful and articulate essay making a case for what he calls "a new middle."

The title of this book is taken from an account by Thomas F. Hornbein on his travels in the Himalayas."

The Gift of Good Land

The essays in The Gift of Good Land are as true today as when they were first published in 1981; the problems addressed here are still true and the solutions no nearer to hand. The insistent theme of this book is the interdependence, the wholeness, the oneness of people, land, weather, animals, and family. To touch one is to tamper with them all. We live in one functioning organism whose separate parts are artificially isolated by our culture. Here, Berry develops the compelling argument that the “gift” of good land has strings attached. We have it only on loan and only for as long as we practice good stewardship.

The essays in The Gift of Good Land are as true today as when they were first published in 1981; the problems addressed here are still true and the solutions no nearer to hand."

The World-Ending Fire

'He is unlike anybody else writing today ... After Donald Trump's election, we urgently need to rediscover the best of radical America. An essential part of that story is Wendell Berry. Few of us can live, or even aspire to, his kind of life. But nobody can risk ignoring him' Andrew Marr 'Wendell Berry is the most important writer and thinker that you have (probably) never heard of. He is an American sage' -James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd's Life Wendell Berry is 'something of an anachronism'. He began his life as the old times and the last of the old-time people were dying out, and continues to this day in the old ways: a team of work horses and a pencil are his preferred working tools. The writings gathered in The World-Ending Fire are the unique product of a life spent farming the fields of rural Kentucky with mules and horses, and of the rich, intimate knowledge of the land cultivated by this work. These are essays written in defiance of the false call to progress, and in defence of the local landscapes that provide our cultural heritage, our history, our home. In a time when our relationship to the natural world is ruled by the violence and greed of unbridled consumerism, Wendell Berry speaks out to defend the land we live on. With grace and conviction, he shows that we simply cannot afford to succumb to the mass-produced madness that drives our global economy. The natural world will not withstand it. Yet he also shares with us a vision of consolation and of hope. We may be locked in an uneven struggle, but we can and must begin to treat our land, our neighbours, and ourselves with respect and care. We must, as Berry urges, abandon arrogance and stand in awe.

The writings gathered in The World-Ending Fire are the unique product of a life spent farming the fields of rural Kentucky with mules and horses, and of the rich, intimate knowledge of the land cultivated by this work."

What I Stand On: the Collected Essays of Wendell Berry 1969-2017

Writing with elegance and clarity, Wendell Berry is a compassionate and compelling voice for our time of political and cultural distrust and division, whether expounding the joys and wisdom of nonindustrial agriculture, relishing the pleasure of eating food produced locally by people you know, or giving voice to a righteous contempt for hollow technological innovation. Now, in celebration of Berry's extraordinary six-decade-long career, Library of America presents a two-volume boxed set edition of his nonfiction writings prepared in close consultation with the author.

Writing with elegance and clarity, Wendell Berry is a compassionate and compelling voice for our time of political and cultural distrust and division, whether expounding the joys and wisdom of nonindustrial agriculture, relishing the ..."

Inhabited by Stories

Intertextuality has signaled change, appropriation, adaptation, and derivation. It has focused readers on irresolvable questions of influence and origination, progressive or regressive movement across continents, periods, and media. Inhabited by Stories: Critical Essays on Tales Retold takes a different approach. What would a model of literary study look like that steps out of time’s river and embraces not only the presence and proximity of the world to the senses, but also of the past and the future to the present here and now? When stories inhabit us, imagination and memory extend our ability to see and feel. Phenomenological experience is lived, not just thought. Such a perspective suggests that the past and future inhabit the present, increase the depth of sensory perception itself, and enrich the range of our affective and ethical responses. Grounded in the lived experience of reading, this perspective offers an alternative to an idea of intertextuality as simply following lines of influence and appropriation. It focuses on the expansion of experience created by telling and retelling stories. Ironically, for literary theorists and critics, perhaps the highest form of both praise and critique is a tale retold, since such retellings attest to literature’s instructive power and its perennial regeneration.

Critical Essays on Tales Retold Nancy A. Barta-Smith, Danette DiMarco ... In Wendell Berry (American Authors Series), edited by Paul Merchant, 27-43. Lewiston, ID: Confluence. —. 1996. ... In Another Turn of the Crank , 46-63. —. 2000."

Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer

A brief meditation on the role of technology in his own life and how it has changed the landscape of the United States from "America's greatest philosopher on sustainable life and living" (Chicago Tribune). "A number of people, by now, have told me that I could greatly improve things by buying a computer. My answer is that I am not going to do it. I have several reasons, and they are good ones." Wendell Berry first challenged the idea that our advanced technological age is a good thing when he penned "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer" in the late 1980s for Harper's Magazine, galvanizing a critical reaction eclipsing any the magazine had seen before. He followed by responding with "Feminism, the Body, and the Machine." Both essays are collected in one short volume for the first time.

" Wendell Berry first challenged the idea that our advanced technological age is a good thing when he penned "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer" in the late 1980s for Harper's Magazine, galvanizing a critical reaction eclipsing any the ..."

Wendell Berry and Higher Education

Why the university should focus on community: “An enlightening interpretation of Wendell Berry’s philosophy for the pursuit of a holistic higher education.” —Publishers Weekly Prominent author and cultural critic Wendell Berry is well known for his contributions to agrarianism and environmentalism, but his commentary on education has received comparatively little attention. Yet Berry has been eloquently unmasking America’s cultural obsession with restless mobility for decades, arguing that it causes damage to both the land and the character of our communities. The education system, he maintains, plays a central role in this obsession, inculcating in students’ minds the American dream of moving up and moving on. Drawing on Berry’s essays, fiction, and poetry, Jack R. Baker and Jeffrey Bilbro illuminate the influential thinker’s vision for higher education in this path-breaking study. Each chapter begins with an examination of one of Berry’s fictional narratives and then goes on to consider how the passage inspires new ways of thinking about the university’s mission. Throughout, Baker and Bilbro argue that instead of training students to live in their careers, universities should educate students to inhabit and serve their places. The authors also offer practical suggestions for how students, teachers, and administrators might begin implementing these ideas. Baker and Bilbro conclude that institutions guided by Berry’s vision might cultivate citizens who can begin the work of healing their communities—graduates who have been educated for responsible membership in a family, a community, or a polity.

The Chubb Fellowship - Wendell Berry . " December 7 , 2013 . http://chubbfellowship.org/speakers/current/wendell_berry . “ The Conservation of Nature and the Preservation of Humanity . ” In Another Turn of the Crank : Essays , 64-85 ."

Telling the Stories Right

Wendell Berry thinks of himself as a storyteller. It's somewhat ironic then that he is better known as an essayist, a poet, and an advocate for small farmers. The essays in this collection consider the many facets of Berry's life and work, but they focus on his efforts as a novelist and story writer. Indeed, Berry had already published three novels before his seminal work of cultural criticism, The Unsettling of America, established him as an ardent defender of local communities and sustainable agriculture. And over the past fifty years, he has published eight novels and more than forty-eight short stories set in the imagined community of Port William. His exquisite rendering of this small Kentucky town challenges us to see the beauty of our own places and communities and to tend their health, threatened though it inevitably is. The twelve contributors to this collection approach Berry's fiction from a variety of perspectives--literary studies, journalism, theology, history, songwriting--to shed light on its remarkable ability to make a good life imaginable and compelling. The first collection devoted to Berry's fiction, this volume insists that any consideration of Berry's work must begin with his stories.

 Wendell Berry's Imagination of Port William Jack Baker, Jeffrey Bilbro. stories to his readers, Berry offers a primer on what it means to live and die well. Both require a community that ... In Another Turn of the Crank : Essays , 86–109."

Imagination in Place

“Berry's latest collection of essays is the reminiscence of a literary life. It is a book that acknowledges a lifetime of intellectual influences, and in doing so, positions Berry more squarely as a cornerstone of American literature . . . A necessary book. Here, Berry's place as the 'grandfather of slow food' or the 'prophet of rural living' is not questioned. This book ensures we understand the depth and breadth of Berry's art.” —San Francisco Chronicle “[A] stellar collection . . . Foodies, architects, transportation engineers, and other writers are adopting and adapting [Berry’s] concepts, perhaps leading to what he envisions will one day be 'an authentic settlement of our country.'“ —The Oregonian A writer who can imagine the “community belonging to its place” is one who has applied his knowledge and citizenship to achieve the goal to which Wendell Berry has always aspired—to be a native to his own local culture. And for Berry, what is “local, fully imagined, becomes universal,” and the “local” is to know one's place and allow the imagination to inspire and instill “a practical respect for what is there besides ourselves." In Imagination in Place, we travel to the local cultures of several writers important to Berry's life and work, from Wallace Stegner's great West and Ernest Gaines' Louisiana plantation life to Donald Hall's New England, and on to the Western frontier as seen through the Far East lens of Gary Snyder. Berry laments today's dispossessed and displaced, those writers and people with no home and no citizenship, but he argues that there is hope for the establishment of new local cultures in both the practical and literary sense. Rich with Berry's personal experience of life as a Kentucky agrarian, the collection includes portraits of a few of America's most imaginative writers, including James Still, Hayden Carruth, Jane Kenyon, John Haines, and several others.

Here, Berry's place as the 'grandfather of slow food' or the 'prophet of rural living' is not questioned. This book ensures we understand the depth and breadth of Berry's art.” —San Francisco Chronicle “[A] stellar collection . . ."

Home Economics

Contains pamphlets on the general topic of home economics.

Essays examine subjects such as family farms, modern universities, national defense policy, and the relationship between humanity and nature"

Remembering

A poetic novel of despair, hope, and the redemptive power of work deepens an award–winning author’s grand Port Williams literary project. After losing his hand in an accident, Andy Catlett confronts an agronomist whose surreal vision can see only industrial farming. This vision is powerfully contrasted with that of modest Amish farmers content to live outside the pressures brought by capitalist postindustrial progress, and by working the land to keep away the three great evils of boredom, vice, and need. As Andy’s perspective filters through his anger over his loss and the harsh city of San Francisco surrounding him, he begins to remember: the people and places that wait 2,000 miles away in his Kentucky home, the comfort he knew as a farmer, and his symbiotic relationship to the soil. Andy laments the modern shift away from the love of the land, even as he begins to accept his own changed relationship to the world. Wendell Berry’s continued fascination with the power of memory continues in this treasured novel set in 1976. “[Berry’s] poems, novels and essays . . . are probably the most sustained contemporary articulation of America’s agrarian, Jeffersonian ideal.” —Publishers Weekly “Wendell Berry is one of those rare individuals who speaks to us always of responsibility, of the individual cultivation of an active and aware participation in the arts of life.” —The Bloomsbury Review

Wendell Berry’s continued fascination with the power of memory continues in this treasured novel set in 1976. “[Berry’s] poems, novels and essays . . . are probably the most sustained contemporary articulation of America’s agrarian, ..."

The Unsettling of America

Since its publication 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 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, his arguments and observations are more relevant than ever. Although “this book has not had the happy fate of being proved wrong,” Berry writes, there are 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.

Since its publication 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 and spiritual discipline."

Designing the Green Economy

Milani, a teacher and research coordinator for the Eco-Materials Project in Toronto, first describes the economic world of the past and present, the industrial and post-industrial world with which we all have some experience. Then comes the economic outline for the world of the future, a green economy most have only glimpsed or heard tell of. Milani's goal is to integrate human technologies into natural processes and stop humanity's "predatory attitude." By doing so we will move from a quantitative model of wealth to a qualitative model where what becomes paramount is the development of people and communities, and the de-development (self-restoration) of nature. Milani wants to reform human practice with real philosophic, economic, and material solutions so that nature no longer needs human protection against human onslaught. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

 Berry , Thomas . 1988. The Dream of the Earth . San Francisco : Sierra Club Books . Berry , Wendell . 1987. Home Economics : 14 Essays . San Francisco : North Point . - . 1990. What Are People For ?: Essays by Wendell Berry ."

Making Nature Sacred

Since colonial times, the sense of encountering an unseen, transcendental Presence within the natural world has been a characteristic motif in American literature and culture. American writers have repeatedly perceived in nature something beyond itself-and beyond themselves. In this book, John Gatta argues that the religious import of American environmental literature has yet to be fully recognized or understood. Whatever their theology, American writers have perennially construed the nonhuman world to be a source, in Rachel Carson's words, of "something that takes us out of ourselves." Making Nature Sacred explores how the quest for "natural revelation" has been pursued through successive phases of American literary and intellectual history. And it shows how the imaginative challenge of "reading" landscapes has been influenced by biblical hermeneutics. Though focused on adaptations of Judeo-Christian religious traditions, it also samples Native American, African American, and Buddhist forms of ecospirituality. It begins with Colonial New England writers such Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, re-examines pivotal figures such as Henry Thoreau and John Muir, and takes account of writings by Mary Austin, Rachel Carson, and many others along the way. The book concludes with an assessment of the "spiritual renaissance" underway in current environmental writing, as represented by five noteworthy poets and by authors such as Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robinson, Peter Matthiessen, and Barry Lopez. This engaging study should appeal not only to students of literature, but also to those interested in ethics and environmental studies, religious studies, and American cultural history.

My pairing of these terms reflects a disapproval widely shared by Berry's postagricultural readers. ... and the Preservation of Humanity,” in Another Turn of the Crank : Essays by Wendell Berry (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1995), pp."

Gratitude for the Wild

Nathaniel Van Yperen offers an original argument for how wilderness can evoke a vision of a good life in which creaturely limits are accepted in gratitude, even in the face of ambiguity and mystery. Through the theme of gratitude, the book refocuses attention on the role of affection and testimony in ecological ethics and Christian ethics.

Collected Essays . New York: Library of America, ... The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays , Cultural and Agricultural. ... What Are People For?: Essays . San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990. Berry , Wendell , and Ralph Eugene Meatyard."

Recollected Essays, 1965-1980

Recalls past camping trips, reminisces about people from the author's childhood, and considers issues about conservation and the quality of life in the United States

Recalls past camping trips, reminisces about people from the author's childhood, and considers issues about conservation and the quality of life in the United States"

The New Agrarian Mind

The self-sufficiency and regional outlook of farm life characterized the United States until the Civil War period. With the triumph of the industrial North over the rural South, the expansion of urbanism, and the closing of the frontier, the agrarian sector became an economic and cultural minority. The social benefits of rural life - a sense of independence, commitment to democracy, an abundance of children, stable community life - were threatened. This volume examines the rise of a distinctive agrarian intellectual movement to combat these trends. The New Agrarian Mind, now in paperback, synthesizes the thought of twentieth-century agrarian writers. It weaves together discussions of major representative figures, such as Liberty Hyde Bailey, Carle Zimmerman, and Wendell Berry, with myth-shattering analyses of the movement's cultural diversity, intellectual influence, and ideological complexity. Collectively labeled the New Agrarians to distinguish them from the simpler Jeffersonianism of the nineteenth century, they shared a coherent set of goals that were at once socially conservative and economically radical.

 Wendell Berry , Recollected Essays , 1965-1980 (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981): 31. ... 67; and Recollected Essays , pp. 42, 52. Berry , The Gift ... Wendell Berry , Another Turn of the Crank (Washington, DC: Counterpoint, 1995)."

The Country of Marriage

Poems espousing marriage, responsibility, and the values of an independent man with his own small farm.

Poems espousing marriage, responsibility, and the values of an independent man with his own small farm."

Deep and Wide

Commitment to a life of prayer and community can prove to be a great help for those involved in politics. Rather than being distracted away from action, Evan B. Howard argues that committed Christians often find both freedom and empowerment to contribute to the greater good of the world. A review of the history of committed Christian life (monasticism) shows that devout communities have engaged in a wide range of socio-political arenas. We can explore today what nuns and monks have accomplished in the past. We can speak into political conversations. We can care for those in need. We can model new ways of ordering life together. We can take concrete political action in governmental process. We can pray. This book blends examination of history with musings about the Christian life and politics generally. It also offers a collection of monastic practices to equip communities and individuals to embody an appropriate blend of “deep” and “wide” for themselves.

 Laird , Martin . Into the Silent Land : A Guide to the Christian Practice of Contemplation . Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2006 . An Ocean of Light : Contemplation , Transformation , and Liberation ."

Democratic Education and the Teacher-As-Prophet

This volume aims to reveal how Dewey’s notion of the religious—understood as faith in the human relational condition—offers a way to think differently about the aims and purposes of education. After exploring the effects of neoliberal conceptions of schooling against broader democratic forms of education, this book suggests that Dewey’s vision of the "teacher-as-prophet" is a useful model for positioning teachers as agents of social change. By catalysing the religious work of schools—understood not as teaching religion, but as a process of social unification—the Deweyan teacher-as-prophet can stimulate experimentation towards a democratic ideal of schooling.

3 (January 1, 2013): 6–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2013.11461850. Berry , Wendell . What Are People For?: Essays . 2nd Revised edition. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint, 2010. Boisvert, Raymond D. John Dewey: Rethinking Our Time."

Virtues of Renewal

For over fifty years, Wendell Berry has argued that our most pressing ecological and cultural need is a renewed formal intelligence -- a mode of thinking and acting that fosters the health of the earth and its beings. Yet the present industrial economy prioritizes a technical, self-centered way of relating to the world that often demands and rewards busyness over thoughtful observation, independence over relationships, and replacing over repairing. Such a system is both unsustainable and results in destructive, far-reaching consequences for our society and land. In Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry's Sustainable Forms, Jeffrey Bilbro combines textual analysis and cultural criticism to explain how Berry's literary forms encourage readers to practice virtues of renewal. While the written word alone cannot enact change, Bilbro asserts that Berry's poetry, essays, and fiction can inspire people to, as Berry writes, "practice resurrection." Bilbro examines the distinct, yet symbiotic, features of these three genres, demonstrating the importance of the humanities in supporting tenable economies. He uses Berry's pieces to suggest the need for more robust language for discussing conservation, ecology, and the natural -- and regenerative -- process of death. Bilbro additionally translates Berry's literature to a wider audience, putting him in conversation with philosophers and theologians such as Ivan Illich, Willie Jennings, Charles Taylor, and Augustine. The lessons that Berry and his work have to offer are not only for those interested in cultivating the land, but also for those who cultivate their communities and live mindfully. In short, these lessons are pertinent to all who are willing to make an effort to live the examined life. Such formative work is not dramatic or quick, but it can foster the deep and lasting transformation necessary to develop a more sustainable culture and economy.

For Berry's response to White's thesis, see Berry , “Gift of Good Land.” 30. Wendell Berry , “Health Is Membership,” in Another Turn of the Crank : Essays (Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 1995), 89. 31. Berry , It All Turns on Affection."

To "fix the People on the Soyle"

In Sex , Economy , Freedom , and Community : Eight Essays . New York : Pantheon Books , 1993 . Berry , Wendell . " Feminism , the Body , and the Machine . " In What Are People For ?: Essays . San Francisco : North Point Press , 1990 ."

Tobacco Harvest

With his striking photographs, James Baker Hall powerfully conveys the physical experience of a Kentucky tobacco harvest. He captures the process from the tractor ride out to the field, where rows of tobacco stretch toward the horizon, to the careful, precise cutting of each individual plant, and finally, to hauling the crop away and housing it in the barn. Hall's snapshots of the "gathering of many hands" who come to help and the time-honored practices of the harvest capture the end of an era. Hall's stunning work is accompanied by an essay from Wendell Berry, which provides an insightful meditation on the shifting nature of humans' relationships with the land and with each other. Berry laments the economic, political, and societal changes that have forever altered Kentucky's rich agricultural traditions. He adds a deeply personal perspective to Hall's eloquent visual testimony, sharing memories of stories told, laughs shared, meals savored, and brief moments of rest and refreshment well earned. Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy is a candid portrait of a bygone way of life—a time before cheaper tobacco imported from abroad and a public awareness of the health risks associated with tobacco use nearly destroyed the industry in the United States. Berry's words and Hall's photographs offer an understanding of the high standards and perfectionism required to produce a good harvest, as well as a glimpse of the hot sun, the dirt, and the people hard at work.

Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy is a candid portrait of a bygone way of life—a time before cheaper tobacco imported from abroad and a public awareness of the health risks associated with tobacco use nearly destroyed the industry in the United ..."

Given

The author's first book of poems in a decade includes selections from his "Sabbath Poems," as well as celebrations of the painters Harlan and Anna Hubbard, "Sonata at Payne Hollow," and other shorter works of verse.

The author's first book of poems in a decade includes selections from his "Sabbath Poems," as well as celebrations of the painters Harlan and Anna Hubbard, "Sonata at Payne Hollow," and other shorter works of verse."