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The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture
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Amazon.com Review
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.
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ssment 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.
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Product details
Paperback: 234 pages
Publisher: Counterpoint; Revised edition (March 1, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0871568772
ISBN-13: 978-0871568779
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
56 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#245,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
It was the Amazon "Customers who bought this item also bought..." section that led me to this book. In fact, it just kept "popping up." In reading the summary of the book's thesis, I was embarrassed that I had not already read it: it was published in 1977. Furthermore, and with much regret, I had never heard of Wendell Berry. He lives on a farm in Henry County, Kentucky, not that far from Louisville. He is a social critic, in the tradition of Vance Packard and Paul Goodman. While he certainly criticizes consumerism, as well as education, his primary focus is on agriculture. As he notes, in some 70 years, we went from having 60% of the population engaged in agriculture to less than 2%. And he asks one of my favorite questions: so what does everyone else actually do with their new-found time? His critique of current agricultural policies and practices is insightful and scathing; again and again there are original "bon mots": "And it is one of the miracles of science and hygiene that the germs that used to be in our food have been replaced by poisons."It was jarring to read: "Earth's numbers now stand at 3.6 billion, and could double in 35 years..." And, of course they have. So, how much worse are the other negative issues that have impacted agriculture. Certainly corporate power, and it narrow, "fundamentalist" approach to the "bottom line," which necessitate, and Berry has mastered the economic lingo, shoving the total costs "off the balance sheet," and they have become "externalities." So what if the management of the fertility of the land is not sustainable? Contour plowing and crop rotation have passed out of fashion. And someone else is required to clean up the poisons dumped into our water sources. And then, what of the true nutritional value of the food being produced, not to mention the taste? (When is the last time you ate a tasty plum?) Indeed, how America became fat.Berry devotes one chapter to debunking a futuristic farm model produced by South Dakota State University. Much is "under glass," there are control towers, and push buttons, and virtually no people. So, in addition to agriculture per se, the author is focuses on the way the education establishment has become such a willing handmaiden to the objectives of corporate power in agriculture. The author notes that the Morrill Act in the 19th century set out "Land-Grant" colleges to help the farmer, but a few "corporate grants" have had an amazing impact on the nature, and outcome of "academic research. As Berry says: "Professors might again become people of experience rather than experts. They might again be able to apply their learning to the small problems of ordinary people and to recommend means and methods not profitable to the suppliers of `purchased inputs.'" Or, in terms of a liberal arts education in general, the following Goodmanesque quote: "And the so-called humanities become a world of their own, a collection of `professional' sub-languages, complicated circuitries of abstruse interpretation, feckless exercises of sensibility...the specialist professor of one or another of the liberal arts, the custodian of an inheritance he has learned much about, but nothing from." Or, in terms of society as a whole: "Can we degrade all forms of essential work and yet expect arts and graces to flourish on weekend? And can we ignore all questions of value on the farm and yet have them answered affirmatively in the grocery store and the household?"Berry devotes another chapter to analyzing the The Odyssey, one of the West's first epic tales, and demonstrates it applicableness to modern agriculture. Again, like Goodman, he examines the very nature of work and contests the idea that if we manage to avoid all the "drudgery," for example, by having someone else cook all our meals, that we actually benefit. He identifies the helplessness so many of us feel in a "specialist" society. I can't say that I agree with all of Wendell's ideas. Although concerned about population growth, he seems to advocate bringing back the rhythm method, or even abstinence (gulp!) in sexual relations. And he sees considerable upside in returning to the use of plow horses (and in limited cases, there might be.)I truly regret having missed this book while the world's population was doubling. His critiques have been amazingly prescient. It remains an essential read. 5-stars, plus.
Thoughtfully critical of the social-economic systems in place in the U.S. in the 70's, but could not be more relevant today, as evey point he highlights seems to be even more prevalent today (2015) and every point he predicts as inevitable outcomes of the follies of our misguided short term gain approach, appears to have come true. What I particularly found intereseting is that he not only provided specific criticism, he also provides solutions. Now, I'm not sure I agree with everything he says in terms of solutions, but there's a lot to take away from this book. If you're looking for a different take on environmentalism that is very much about proper use of land, not just looking at nature as something to look at, where indeed sometimes that might be the case, but really it's about figuring out how use the land without ruining it (sustainable farming), then you are in store for a thought provoking read.
SIMPLY THE BEST BOOK YOU WILL EVER READ ON HOW TO RESTORE THE EARTH AND HAVE A GREAT QUALITY OF LIFE.... With the next few years being questionable because of climate change, economic uncertainty, and political unrest this book provides an outlook that, if embraced, will help the planet resolve many of its ills, while at the same time provide you with an amazing quality of life.Along with the book is the amazing video that is Back to Eden... here's the link [...] If you are looking for how to prepare or create a more sustainable life, if you value true freedom, if you value connecting with the divine, READ THIS BOOK...it will change your life.
This could possibly be considered one of the great American books; the originality of thought and truly American perspective are very unique. It reads like Twain, but with a religious farmer's perspective, which is basically the threads of our current culture.
America is in the midst of an agricultural crisis; the crops that farms produce are reduced in quality, soil is eroding, and more and more small farms are being taken over by large mega-farms with the new “go big or go home†mentality that dominates the rural landscape. This issue is what Wendell Berry is responding to in his book, written in 1977. However, the book has aged well, as the problems with the American agricultural system persist to this day. In this book, Berry searches for the root of these agricultural problems, arriving at the broad conclusion that the problem is American culture as a whole, particularly its move towards specialization and loss of holistic living. This change has severed the average American’s relationship with the land that sustains them, and people need to rekindle that relationship to reverse the current destructive agricultural trends. One consistent theme of Berry’s search is America’s predilection towards specialization. People no longer develop multiple skills or talents; rather, they become experts in a certain field or trade, forgoing a holistic approach to their work. Instead, people train themselves to be more like small, easy to replace cogs in a larger machine, losing a rounded approach to life. Berry’s largest concern is that this trend has infiltrated agricultural practice, leading to the formation of what he calls “agribusiness,†which is agriculture that is concerned with making as much money as possible. These large agribusinesses are replacing the farmer of old, who had to be a nurturer, husbandman, and much more besides just someone who grew crops. This combination of traits is what allowed (and continues to allow some farmers) to grow the highest quality food possible, because they understood the relationships between the different aspects of farm life. This model is hard to come by nowadays, as the trend has shifted from the production of high quality food to producing a high quantity of food. Berry considers this ingrained culture a sort of “orthodoxy,†something almost dogmatic in nature; his advice to break this orthodoxy is to live “on the margins.†This particular advice to defy cultural norms recalls his famous poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, published only a few years before this book. The proposals Berry makes most certainly defy cultural norms, as he suggests a luddite-esque return to preindustrial agricultural practices similar to the one employed by the Amish. However, this shift is not the only thing Berry recommends; he also offers some seemingly more practical methods of shifting the paradigm. These include developing a healthy skepticism of specialists; a shift in governmental focus to protecting the small and weak from the great and powerful; a universal composting system that connects urban populations and the farmers that feed them; avoid monocultures, and facing the problem of carrying capacity on this earth. As a young environmentalist, I find Berry’s book and all of its criticisms quite compelling. The sheer number of topics he manages to discuss, covering fidelity in marriage and Peruvian mountain farmers in one book, also impresses me. Even though he examines a wide array of topics, Berry never loses the focus of his book and ties the subjects back to culture and its relationship with agriculture. The result is a book that discusses the overall cultural and agricultural problems in America that is relevant thirty-five years after its publication. That said, I find myself questioning how practical his overall suggestion of returning to preindustrial agricultural models is. With an exploding global population and unequal food distribution, it seems that such a drastic switch would not be feasible, and frankly irresponsible. I do think that Berry is right to point out the many flaws in our current method of agricultural production, particularly the issue of monocultures and agribusiness, but I think to reject over one-hundred years of technological innovation does not seem like a viable solution.The Unsettling of America is an important piece of writing that all environmentally minded people should read. Berry provides an excellent starting point for thinking about where culture and the environment intersect, as it occurs much more often than people might believe. Exploring the agricultural and environmental crises through a cultural lens is the only way we can ever hope to tackle such massive problems. Berry understands that, and articulates it well in this book.
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