Home Economics

I have been a fan of Wendell Berry since my undergraduate days. I own many of his collected essays, as they are worth returning to again and again. At his best, Berry is one of the most thoughtful and challenging writers in America today--whether writing literary criticism, social criticism, poetry, or fiction.This collection of essays is not Berry's very best. But Berry at his worst would still be worth reading (and I can't say that I've ever read anything by him that I could even call "moderately bad"). If you wish to go beneath the surfact events and problems in America to their root causes, Berry will take you there.

Mr. Berry, in engaging with the pressing issues and institutions of our day--from higher education to national security to gender relations to the perception of manual labor--introduces a new vocabulary for improving our country and our world. Instead of "progress" and "movement," Mr. Berry suggests "community" and "loyalty." These notions, and the overarching theme of commitment to place, inform all fourteen insightful essays. Mr. Berry is passionate and articulate, and his book will, at least, encourage debate, if not inspire real and lasting change in the way that Americans deal with their environment, their neighbors, and themselves.