On Gandhi's Path: Bob Swann's Work for Peace and Community Economics

by Stephanie Mills

Bigger has turned out not to be better. Servicing the global economy has exacted a heavy toll in the erosion of our communities and the destruction of our environment. Increasingly, we are coming to realize that the way forward looks a lot like the way back—back to strong local economies; back to resilient, tight-knit communities; back to the land and work that is real. As we chart our course through these uncertain times, we are hungry for inspiration. Robert Swann was a self-taught economist, a tireless champion of decentralism, and the father of the relocalization movement. A conscientious war resistor imprisoned for his beliefs, Bob Swann engaged in lifelong nonviolent direct action against war, racism, and economic inequity. His legacy is a vision of a life-affirming, alternative economy of peace founded on innovations in land and monetary reform. Swann’s story is also the untold history of decentralism in the United States. He associated with a constellation of vital, intelligent, independent authors and activists, and ultimately co-founded the Schumacher Society based on the philosophies of Small Is Beautiful author E. F. Schumacher. Swann forged tools to build productive, resilient local and regional economies. Now as global industrial civilization flails in the throes of ecological and economic crisis, Swann’s working innovations are at the ready to help neighborhoods, local entrepreneurs, and willing communities rebuild at appropriate scales. Stephanie Mills is an author, teacher, practicing bioregionalist, and fellow of the Post-Carbon Institute. She has written numerous books, including Whatever Happened to Ecology?

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Stephanie Mills is an author, lecturer and longtime bioregionalist. Her books include Tough Little Beauties, Epicurean Simplicity, and In Service of the Wild.

Reviews

[Dooug · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was inspired to read this after reading a Harper's article on Community Land Trusts, that Swann was involved in creating. It was mostly a recounting of every relevant person he and his partners crossed paths and aligned with over their activism lives. Mills clearly has a command of language but too often I found the vocabulary just beyond my reach, leaving me reaching for my dictionary early on and later just glossing through the book.
I appreciate the folks the book is about, but wouldn't recommend reading it unless you're looking for a play by play of his life, mostly those who influenced him, without much narrative.
I began hoping to understand more of CLTs but this wasn't the book for that.

[Amy Lou Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Environmentalists have been getting accustomed to the feel of the new word “locavore” in their mouth: the idea of finding food close to home. The notion of knowing the farmer or being the farmer seems related to community building as well as keeping watch on earth-sustaining activities. But as Stephanie Mills teaches us in a biography of Bob Swann, the

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