Synopses & Reviews
For many, andldquo;going back to the landandrdquo; brings to mind the 1960s and 1970sandmdash;hippie communes and the Summer of Love, The Whole Earth Catalog and Mother Earth News. More recently, the movement has reemerged in a new enthusiasm for locally produced food and more sustainable energy paths. But these latest back-to-the-landers are part of a much larger story. Americans have been dreaming of returning to the land ever since they started to leave it. In
Back to the Land, Dona Brown explores the history of this recurring impulse.and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; ?and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Back-to-the-landers have often been viewed as nostalgic escapists or romantic nature-lovers. But their own words reveal a more complex story. In such projects as Gustav Stickleyandrsquo;s Craftsman Farms, Frank Lloyd Wrightandrsquo;s andldquo;Broadacre City,andrdquo; and Helen and Scott Nearingandrsquo;s quest for andldquo;the good life,andrdquo; Brown finds that the return to the farm has meant less a going-backwards than a going-forwards, a way to meet the challenges of the modern era. Progressive reformers pushed for homesteading to help impoverished workers get out of unhealthy urban slums. Depression-era back-to-the-landers, wary of the centralizing power of the New Deal, embraced a new andldquo;third wayandrdquo; politics of decentralism and regionalism. Later still, the movement merged with environmentalism. To understand Americansandrsquo; response to these back-to-the-land ideas, Brown turns to the fan letters of ordinary readersandmdash;retired teachers and overworked clerks, recent immigrants and single women. In seeking their rural roots, Brown argues, Americans have striven above all for the independence and self-sufficiency they associate with the agrarian ideal.and#160;and#160;Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the American Association of School Librarians
Review
andldquo;What a splendid account of a movement thatandrsquo;s usually caricatured. It taught me a lot about my state of Vermont, but also about the political and committed history of back-to-the-landers across American history. Forget your stereotype of the rugged individualist: this story turns out to be a lot more interesting than that!andrdquo;andmdash;Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
Review
“Beautifully analyzes the implications of Thoreauvian withdrawal for modern politics and reminds us that the construction of the democratic city requires the cultivation of intellectually critical yet spiritually self-trusting democratic souls.”—Jack Turner, University of Washington
Review
“Mariotti’s crisp and engaging book will make you think again about who Thoreau is and what difference he makes to democratic theory. By means of the surprising but highly productive pairing of Thoreau with Adorno, Mariotti reveals the political value of withdrawing from the glare of publicity in order to recover the capacity to think and act against the grain.”—Jane Bennett, author of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things
Review
“Shannon Mariotti joins the ranks of Stanley Cavell, George Kateb, and Jane Bennett with this remarkable rethinking of Thoreau. Her creative use of Adorno’s critical perspective, brought to bear on the conventional understanding of Thoreau’s supposed antisocial bias, allows us to think again about his vision, one that is not simply democratic, but tragically so.”—Thomas Dumm, author of Loneliness as a Way of Life
Review
andldquo;A compelling work of extraordinary richnessandmdash;a singular quilt of Americana concerning those who lived the ever-changing back-to-the-land movement and those who wrote about it as well. Cultural and agricultural history are happily wed here.andrdquo;andmdash;Michael Kammen, Cornell University
Review
andldquo;A useful corrective to the idea that the country living movement is strictly an effort to get right with Mother Earth.andrdquo;andmdash;The Wilson Quarterly
Review
andldquo;In historian Dona Brown, the back-to-the-land movement has found its supremely elegant and most empathetic chronicler. Brown lifts the movement out of its now obscure classical originandmdash;the late-19th-century USandmdash;and foregrounds it in modern American contemporary concerns, such as food security, organic farming, and renewable energy. She does this so deftly that her work at once reads as a scholarly account of Americansandrsquo; enduring romance with the countryside as well as a nostalgia-filled, emancipatory anthem to andlsquo;Jefferson bumpkins.andrsquo; More importantly, her deeply researched work debunks the simplistic reading of the back-to-the-landers as seekers of hippie nirvana in country life. . . . Summing Up: Essential.andrdquo; andmdash;CHOICE
Review
andldquo;Back to the Land is well researched, smoothly written, and often sharp and witty. The book does not engage with Vermont history specifically throughout its length, but Vermont and neighboring New England states play prominent roles in many of the stories that Brown tells. There is a great deal here to appeal to audiences from a range of backgrounds and with a range of historical interests. . . .[T]odayandrsquo;s back-to-the-landers will want to spend time reading and thinking about Brownandrsquo;s findings while they get down to the practical business of living and writing the next chapter in this longer American story.andrdquo;andmdash;Vermont History
Synopsis
Best known for his two-year sojourn at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau is often considered a recluse who emerged from solitude only occasionally to take a stand on the issues of his day. In
Thoreau’s Democratic Withdrawal, Shannon L. Mariotti explores Thoreau’s nature writings to offer a new way of understanding the unique politics of the so-called hermit of Walden Pond. Drawing imaginatively from the twentieth-century German social theorist Theodor W. Adorno, she shows how withdrawal from the public sphere can paradoxically be a valuable part of democratic politics.
Separated by time, space, and context, Thoreau and Adorno share a common belief that critical inquiry is essential to democracy but threatened by modern society. While walking, huckleberrying, and picking wild apples, Thoreau tries to recover the capacities for independent perception and thought that are blunted by “Main Street,” conventional society, and the rapidly industrializing world that surrounded him. Adorno’s thoughts on particularity and the microscopic gaze he employs to work against the alienated experience of modernity help us better understand the value of Thoreau’s excursions into nature. Reading Thoreau with Adorno, we see how periodic withdrawals from public spaces are not necessarily apolitical or apathetic but can revitalize our capacity for the critical thought that truly defines democracy.
In graceful, readable prose, Mariotti reintroduces us to a celebrated American thinker, offers new insights on Adorno, and highlights the striking common ground they share. Their provocative and challenging ideas, she shows, still hold lessons on how we can be responsible citizens in a society that often discourages original, critical analysis of public issues.
Synopsis
In 1904 a young Danish woman met a Sami wolf hunter on a train in Sweden. This chance encounter transformed the lives of artist Emilie Demant and the hunter, Johan Turi. In 1907-8 Demant went to live with Sami families in their tents and on migrations, later writing a lively account of her experiences. She collaborated with Turi on his book about his people. On her own and later with her husband Gudmund Hatt, she roamed on foot through Sami regions as an ethnographer and folklorist. As an artist, she created many striking paintings with Sami motifs. Her exceptional life and relationships come alive in this first English-language biography.
In recounting Demant Hatt's fascinating life, Barbara Sjoholm investigates the boundaries and influences between ethnographers and sources, the nature of authorship and visual representation, and the state of anthropology, racial biology, and politics in Scandinavia during the first half of the twentieth century.
Synopsis
Back-to-the-landers have often been viewed as nostalgic escapists or romantic nature-lovers. But their own words and those of their readers reveal a more complex story. The return to the farm, Dona Brown finds, means less a going-backwards than a going-forwards, a way to meet the challenges of the modern era. In seeking their rural roots, Americans strive above all for the self-sufficiency they associate with the agrarian ideal.
Synopsis
Best known for his two-year sojourn at Walden Pond in Massachusetts, Henry David Thoreau is often considered a recluse who emerged from solitude only occasionally to take a stand on the issues of his day. In Thoreau’s Democratic Withdrawal, Shannon L. Mariotti explores Thoreau’s nature writings to offer a new way of understanding the unique politics of the so-called hermit of Walden Pond. Drawing imaginatively from the twentieth-century German social theorist Theodor W. Adorno, she shows how withdrawal from the public sphere can paradoxically be a valuable part of democratic politics.
About the Author
Dona Brown is associate professor of history at the University of Vermont and author of Inventing New England: Regional Tourism in the Nineteenth Century.and#160;
Table of Contents
List of Illustrationsand#160;and#160;and#160;
Acknowledgmentsand#160;and#160;and#160;
Introductionand#160;and#160;and#160;
Part 1: The First American Back-to-the-Land Movement
1. The Back-to-the-Land Projectand#160;and#160;and#160;
2. Adventures in Contentment: Some Back-to-the-Land Writers and Their Readersand#160;and#160;and#160;
3. Who Wants a Farm?and#160;and#160;and#160;
4. From Little Lands to Suburban Farmsand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Coda: Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre Cityand#160;and#160;and#160;
Part 2: Returning to Back to the Land
5. Subsistence Homesteads: The New Deal Goes Back to the Landand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Coda: Ralph Borsodi Rejects the New Dealand#160;and#160;and#160;
6. andquot;I'll Take My Standandquot; (in Vermont): Decentralizing the Back-to-the-Land Movementand#160;and#160;and#160;
and#160;and#160;and#160; Coda: The Nearings Invent Their Own Vermontand#160;and#160;and#160;
7. Back to the Garden: The 1970sand#160;and#160;and#160;
Epilogue: Home, Land, Securityand#160;and#160;and#160;
Notesand#160;and#160;and#160;
Index