The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Foreword by Barbara Kingsolver
A compelling worldview with advocates from around the globe, agrarianism challenges the shortcomings of our industrial and technological economy. Not simply focused on farming, the agrarian outlook encourages us to develop practices and policies that promote the health of land, community, and culture. Agrarianism reminds us that no matter how urban we become, our survival will always be inextricably linked to the precious resources of soil, water, and air. This understanding demands that we become active caregivers of the earth and its life-giving sources.
Combining fresh insights from the disciplines of education, law, history, urban and regional planning, economics, philosophy, religion, ecology, politics, and agriculture, these original essays develop a sophisticated critique of our culture's current relationship to the land, while offering practical alternatives. Leading agrarians, including Wendell Berry, Vandana Shiva, Wes Jackson, Gene Logsdon, Brian Donahue, Eric Freyfogle, and David Orr, explain how our goals should be redirected toward genuinely sustainable communities. These writers lament the shortsightedness of economic and political ambition, and call us to an honest accounting and correction of our often destructive ways. They suggest how our society can take practical steps toward integrating soils, watersheds, forests, wildlife, urban areas, and human populations into one great system-a responsible flourishing of our world and culture. The Essential Agrarian Reader calls us to celebrate the gifts of the earth, a celebration manifested in honest work and respect for the land.
About the Author
Norman Wirzba, associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Georgetown College, is the author of The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age and editor of The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.
The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land,Norman Wirzba,University Press of Kentucky,0813122856,Agriculture,Agriculture - Sustainable Agriculture,Economic aspects,Environmental Conservation & Protection - General,Environmental Science,Environmental Studies,Environmental aspects,Human ecology,Nature,Nature/Ecology,Social aspects,Agriculture & Farming,Cultural studies,Management of land & natural resources
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