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173rd out of 246 books
—
215 voters
The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
The Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty-one essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. These essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture. Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, a...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
August 5th 2003
by Counterpoint
(first published January 1st 2002)
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Sep 04, 2012
Melody
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Melody by:
David Wright
In the essays collected as "The Art of the Commonplace," Wendell Berry presents a compelling vision for the restoration of American culture. He argues that a deep attachment to the land and a proper understanding of humanity's relationship to the created world will help us develop a more robust definition of economics and sustainability, one that will preserve our exhaustible natural resources and enable us to provide for future generations. (As he says: life is short, and the world is long.) Be...more
If you have tendencies toward conservation or the outdoors, reading Berry is like finding the choir master. He is a modern incarnation of Thoreau, though his focus is less about his own life than about the way we interact with our environment. The real strength of the book, for me, rests on the first two essays, "A Native Hill" and "The Unsettling of America."
Berry holds that modern man has no knowledge what land is for and so doesn't know how NOT to damage it. He writes of European settlers: "...more
Berry holds that modern man has no knowledge what land is for and so doesn't know how NOT to damage it. He writes of European settlers: "...more
People should read this book like they read the Bible. Not necessarily the way believers read the Bible (though it's not the worst replacement), but at least the way anyone who wants to be culturally literate reads Genesis and Exodus and Job and John and a few others to have an idea of what's going on around them. This is the compelling oppositional political and social philosophy of my generation, my peer social class at least. So often as I get to know someone I come to see that they hold this...more
Wendell Berry is a fascinating character, who always has interesting things to say. If nothing else, Berry is useful in challenging us to reconsider our presuppositions. We're just not used to being told that industry and production (as we do them now) are inherently bad, and ought to be done away with in favor of the quiet of a small, local community. Berry is exceptionally good at expressing and expanding on things most Americans (I can't speak for other nationalities) already believe: the lif...more
Full disclosure: I only read about half the essays in this book. Granted that most of these pieces are dated (20+ years old), they still contain prescient and eerily familiar reflections the rise of big agribusiness and the loss of small farms, small schools, and community. Okay, I get that...
Nonetheless, I found his stance on technology, cities, and culture extremely simplistic and monotonous. Berry seems to think that ALL of society's ills could be cured if everybody simply went back to an agr...more
Nonetheless, I found his stance on technology, cities, and culture extremely simplistic and monotonous. Berry seems to think that ALL of society's ills could be cured if everybody simply went back to an agr...more
What can I say---it's Wendell Berry! I try to reserve my worship for the One and Only, but I'm deeply appreciative of Berry's perspective, that can infuse our daily actions with the kind of thought they deserve. Our culture inspires a kind of numb consumerism that Berry wakes us up from. I am not a primitivist--though I do spend my summers at a fishcamp in the wilderness with an outhouse, no shower, all that---and I reject the notion that working the soil is the only legitimate work for humankin...more
Wendell Berry made his living as a writer and speaker, jobs only possible via modern technology and completely unsustainable on a larger scale. While enjoying a privileged lifestyle he dabbled in farming and fantasizing about the past.
This book's idealization of an agrarian lifestyle is an insult to the millions of human beings still struggling to survive via subsistence agriculture. Placing a farmer on a pedestal is as offensive as the stereotype of the "noble savage": it ignores historical rea...more
This book's idealization of an agrarian lifestyle is an insult to the millions of human beings still struggling to survive via subsistence agriculture. Placing a farmer on a pedestal is as offensive as the stereotype of the "noble savage": it ignores historical rea...more
Oh man, I am passionately devoted to Wendell Berry. I say too many things sarcastically, but I am dead serious. I can pinpoint the moment when I looked up and said "Oh, I am in love with this author's mind.I am becoming a fucking farmer and moving to Asheville and growing my own vegetables and reading Wendell everyday." That is what happened to me, people. He is right about everything. It sounds weird, but I am so serious. Wendell Berry is excellent and fantastic and phenomenal and makes me want...more
I spent months plowing [pun intended] through this collection of essays. I view that time as well spent and edifying. Just before finishing the last few pages I turned to the notes and highlights I've made along the way. What nuggets, what treasures, what wisdom! And I have page after of page of those notes, which upon re-reading, make me want to dive back into the source essay and not forget the context.
More importantly, there are actions to be taken as results of the readings in this collecti...more
More importantly, there are actions to be taken as results of the readings in this collecti...more
Urban Jungles
Living in a city, I sometimes find nature a nuisance. Snow might display beautiful characteristics as it coats a meadow, but it certainly exhibits headache-inducing qualities when it materializes during the commute. Vibrant evergreens coating a mountain convey the finest forms of art, yet no tree stands in the way of a property owner desiring a better view. Urban life is ultimately divorced from the land. A simple block-to-block walk downtown provides little to no evidence of ecolog...more
Living in a city, I sometimes find nature a nuisance. Snow might display beautiful characteristics as it coats a meadow, but it certainly exhibits headache-inducing qualities when it materializes during the commute. Vibrant evergreens coating a mountain convey the finest forms of art, yet no tree stands in the way of a property owner desiring a better view. Urban life is ultimately divorced from the land. A simple block-to-block walk downtown provides little to no evidence of ecolog...more
I love Wendell Berry. He writes beautifully, carefully handcrafting each sentence. He is an inspiration.
That being said, I can't agree with him completely. True, modern technology and factories and over-specialization have produced much evil. We must beware. But they have also given us much good. Berry is great at identifying the bad, but not quite so great at identifying the good. For example: we are blessed to have machines that can help us make hay better, quicker, and easier. Tractors are a...more
That being said, I can't agree with him completely. True, modern technology and factories and over-specialization have produced much evil. We must beware. But they have also given us much good. Berry is great at identifying the bad, but not quite so great at identifying the good. For example: we are blessed to have machines that can help us make hay better, quicker, and easier. Tractors are a...more
I had already read several of these essays in The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, but they were worth reading again.
A Native Hill
A meditative history (both personal and cultural) of a hill in Kentucky. There are some lovely, lyrical passages in this work, which is really more creative non-fiction than persuasive essay.
The Unsettling of America
A discussion of the differences between exploiters and nurturers, and how America's economy favors exploiters.
Racism and the Economy
A look...more
A Native Hill
A meditative history (both personal and cultural) of a hill in Kentucky. There are some lovely, lyrical passages in this work, which is really more creative non-fiction than persuasive essay.
The Unsettling of America
A discussion of the differences between exploiters and nurturers, and how America's economy favors exploiters.
Racism and the Economy
A look...more
Wendell Berry is certainly a prophet of our era. This handsome volume collects a great many of his essays into one place and presents them in a kind of order. My main critique critique is that there are too many essays here. Though Berry is an excellent essayist, I found myself tiring of his voice about two thirds of the way through. Perhaps a slimmer volume would have prevented this. I'm also willing to lay this problem at the feet of the collection as a concept. No doubt, in their original con...more
I am currently self-exiled in the countryside, and I picked up this book thinking, who better to foster in me a love of rural life than Wendell Berry? Instead of being filled with warm fuzzy feelings for all things agricultural, however, I finished the book with an expanded sense of community, a wider understanding of internesting economies, and what it means to live with the rest of the world in mind.
I appreciated the fact that this collection provides the date of original publication for each...more
I appreciated the fact that this collection provides the date of original publication for each...more
I'm grateful for this book. The subjects he takes up through the essays vary considerably, but his theme remains strong and consistent - that we, as a culture of consumers in modern America, are losing something from our divorce from the land and what it bears. Not only food, but sense of place and purpose. This one is a really nice collection of essays written over a span of decades. A great place to get a mouthful of Berry's critical nonfiction.
This may be the Berry book I return to most often. Although many of the essays are over two decades old, they speak prophetically to key issues we face today: misuse of our environment, policies that harm small farmers, a misguided belief in consumption as a route to happiness, global corporations with no loyalty to the health of local communities. His assessments are sobering, convincing, and impressively insightful.
Wendell Berry has certainly captured my heart - and my mind - with this collection of essays. Berry is an astute, witty, and poetic writer, and does not shy away from boldly confronting and challenging the status quo and generally accepted ways of living and going about life. His wisdom and insight is unique and much needed in our world. I found myself longing more for the rolling hills and quiet of a more agrarian lifestyle with each essay, while simultaneously longing I could have Mr. Berry as...more
Wendell Berry is so sensible and down to earth. He brings such practical common sense to cut through the confusing veils of politics and economics. With the upheaval going on today around the world financial situation we could benefit from listening to Wendell Berry and getting more sensible about how we live.
This is a collection of Berry's essays that are related to "farming". Several of them appear in other collections of essays. I found some of them uncomfortable to read because of what they had to say about me and my lifestyle.
Thought Wendell Berry was inspired by God for a while. Then I met Ben Carver and thought he was. Now I'm not sure about any of it. Berry seems rather Luddite and overly idealistic in my view now, though he has some good points.
LOVED this book.... can't wait to read more of Wendell Berry's work!
I've often thought that Christians though we have great reverence for the Word that God gifted us with, and though we owe our lives in appreciation for the gift of salvation through Jesus, and though we look forward to Heaven, we often forget about another sacred gift He's entrusted us with - the earth.
Wendell Berry in a very eloquent way reminds me to appreciate this wonderful world and the simple life. He also reminds me of o...more
I've often thought that Christians though we have great reverence for the Word that God gifted us with, and though we owe our lives in appreciation for the gift of salvation through Jesus, and though we look forward to Heaven, we often forget about another sacred gift He's entrusted us with - the earth.
Wendell Berry in a very eloquent way reminds me to appreciate this wonderful world and the simple life. He also reminds me of o...more
I love this collection of Wendell Berry's essays. When I need a thought-provoking, beautifully written and authoritative voice on food, farming, rural society, families and life in general, this is where I go.
See my analysis of this book in the 2003 Magill's Literary Annual. Berry adds to our understanding of the basic human experience through his clear-eyed view of the importance of our relationship to the earth.
I've been working on this for quite a while, one essay at a time. While I don't agree on all of Berry's anti-industrialism stances, many of them are just good sense, as is so much of what he writes on nearly all subjects. When God was handing out common sense, he gave Wendell a couple extra doses. However, many of Berry's supposed followers, like those who follow Joel Salatin, separate his philosophy from his faith in God and end up deifying creation rather than the Creator. Berry advocates a ca...more
Sep 30, 2008
Claudia
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
berry lovers
Recommended to Claudia by:
bookstore
Shelves:
environment
If you are looking for a book that bundles Wendell Berry's more telling agrarian writing, then this is the book for you.
In reading Berry's essays, most often about the transition of small farms to corporate conglomerates, I often find myself wondering how long the U.S. can continue on its trajectory of "progress."
This anthology of Berry's agrarian writing had the same effect, prompting questions and thought about a variety of themes, including faith, family, sexuality, success, economy, land, an...more
In reading Berry's essays, most often about the transition of small farms to corporate conglomerates, I often find myself wondering how long the U.S. can continue on its trajectory of "progress."
This anthology of Berry's agrarian writing had the same effect, prompting questions and thought about a variety of themes, including faith, family, sexuality, success, economy, land, an...more
Berry is a great poet. However, he does not demonstrate any deep insights in this book. He sounded like Greening of America, all grown up.
It might appeal to some people, but I found it tiresome.
It might appeal to some people, but I found it tiresome.
I have read selections. Very interesting to read and consider esp. man's role in the use of energy and the care for creation. However, he does not offer many practical suggestions.
Apr 14, 2013
Amanda Oster
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
miscellaneous-nonfiction
As this was my first experience with Berry, I didn't have any notions of what I would receive from his writing(s); I am humbled and deeply grateful for his contributions to the world through his work displayed in this collection. Though many of the essays here are more than 20 even 30 years old, the substance of his work is just as relevant, if not more so than when it was first written. He is a man deeply aware of the world in which he lives and it can be argued that he stands at the forefront...more
Some of Berry's best nonfiction essays. Not all are five-star, but enough of them are to make it worthwhile. We use it as a textbook in one of our earthkeeping classes.
This is a great introduction to the work of Wendell Berry, the grand-daddy of the critique of industrial agriculture. He was urging people to eat more locally produced food long before the locavore movement was cool. He emphasizes that eating IS an agricultural act, and calls for people in urban areas to learn more about where there food is coming from - who farms it, how the land and the animals are treated, and so on. I dont' agree with everything he says, but I like the bulk of it, and am gla...more
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Wendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."
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“People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each other.
(pg. 61, "Racism and the Economy")”
—
181 people liked it
(pg. 61, "Racism and the Economy")”
“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy.
In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers...
Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
—
116 people liked it
More quotes…
In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers...
Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?
The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”
Wi...more
Sep 10, 2010 10:55am