The Art of the Commonplace

The Art of the Commonplace is a collection of twenty one essays written by Wendell Berry, one of the best minds of our times. His essays offer an agrarian alternative to our mindless urban lives. Berry believes in healthy rural communities, sustainable agriculture, appropriate technology, hard work and frugality. These essays bring out these and many more of his beliefs in a simple and eloquent language.

 

Berry is against the corporate takeover of agriculture and he defends farming communities and family integrity. He believes that greed, violence, adherence to a wrong philosophy of life and simple common sense factors like the erosion of the top soil contribute to the destruction of the "good life". Anyone who introspects on "where has the simple, good life gone?" must read these essays.

 

Contents : Introduction : The Challenge of Berry's Agrarian Vision

 

Part I: A Geobiography

 1. "A Native Hill"

 

Part II: Understanding Our Cultural Crisis 

1. The Unsettling of America 3. Racism and the Economy 3. "Feminism the Body, and the Machine" 4. "Think Little"

 

Part III: The Agrarian Basis for an Authentic Culture 

1. "The Body and the Earth" 2. "Men and Women in Search of Common Ground" 3. "Health Is Membership" 4. "Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community" 5. "People, Land, and Community" 6. "Conservation and local Economy"

 

Part IV: Agrarian Economics

 1. "Economy and Pleasure" 2. "Two Economies" 3. "The Whole Horse" 4. "The Idea of a Local Economy" 5. "A Bad Big Idea" 6. "Solving for Pattern" Part V: Agrarian Religion & 1. "The Use of Energy" 2. "The Gift of Good Land" 3. "Christianity and the Survival of Creation" 4. "The Pleasures of Eating". Acknowledgements

 

Wendell Berry is America's most eloquent and prolific defender of traditional rural economy and small scale farming. He is the author of more than fourty books. He lives and works in his native Kentucky with his wife, Tanya Berry, and their children and grand children.