The mid-20th-century environmental crisis that led to important protective legislation in the 1970s, is, to poet/farmer Wendell Berry's mind, also a crisis of character, agriculture, and culture. Because Americans are divorced from the land, they mistreat it; because they are divorced from each other, they mistreat those around them. Berry, writing in a prophetic mode, argues that if Americans are to heal the environmental wounds their land has suffered, they will also need to create more meaningful work, sustain happier and healthier lives, and return to what conservatives call "family values." The Unsettling of America is a quarter century old now, but most of its arguments remain current.
Inside Flap Copy
Berry's assessment of modern agriculture and its relationship to American culture--our health, economy, personal relationships, morals, and spiritual values--is more timely than ever. This new edition of Berry's work presents a a classic testament to the value of the American family farm.
About the Author
Wendell Berry - writer, poet, teacher, naturalist, and farmer - is the author of many notable works, including The Gift of Good Land; Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community; and Fidelity. He and his family live - and farm - in Port Royal, Kentucky.
Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture ANNOTATION
Berry's personal, dramatic inquiry into the way in which we use the land that sustains us. Berry explores the roots of many of our attitudes.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
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 devaluation of human work, and the destruction of nature under an economics dedicated to the mechanistic pursuit of products and profits.
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