The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture

On my bookself sits a number of volumes on voluntary simplicity. This one is simply one of the best. It is so good in fact that I am considering giving the other books away. In this history, the author chronicles three centuries of simplicty in America.

The Simple Life: Plain Living And High Thinking In American Culture by David E. Shi (President and Professor of History, Furman University) is a candid, informative, scholarly examination throughout American social history of the drive to simplify one's life and find meaning by the means of deliberately giving up excess material vanity, as embodied in the writings and lifestyles of Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Jimmy Carter, and others. Individual chapters discuss the simple life concept from the Puritan, Quaker, Republican, and other points of view, and the importance and value this way of thought, behavior, and culture retained even in today's increasingly fast-paced electronic world. A thoughtful book, filled with carefully assessed observations, The Simple Life is strongly recommended reading for anyone contemplating simplification of their personal lifestyles and circumstances as a means of improving the quality of their lives and themselves.

This is the best book I have ever read on simple living. The writer not only knows his history, but he can write. I especially liked the chapter on Emersonian views of simple living.Richard J. Lorenz