Our Only World: Ten Essays

by Wendell Berry

Overview

"Stern but compassionate, author Wendell Berry raises broader issues that environmentalists rarely focus on . . . In one sense Berry is the voice of a rural agrarian tradition that stretches from rural Kentucky back to the origins of human civilization. But his insights are universal because Our Only World is filled with beautiful, compassionate writing and careful, profound thinking."

—Associated Press

The planet's environmental problems respect no national boundaries. From soil erosion and population displacement to climate change and failed energy policies, American governing classes are paid by corporations to pretend that debate is the only democratic necessity and that solutions are capable of withstanding endless delay. Late Capitalism goes about its business of finishing off the planet. And we citizens are left with a shell of what was once proudly described as The American Dream.

In this collection of eleven essays, Berry confronts head-on the necessity of clear thinking and direct action. Never one to ignore the present challenge, he understands that only clearly stated questions support the understanding their answers require. For more than fifty years we've had no better spokesman and no more eloquent advocate for the planet, for our families, and for the future of our children and ourselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781619024885
Publisher:	Catapult
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Essayist, novelist, and poet, Wendell Berry has written more than thirty books. He lives and works in his native Kentucky with his wife, Tanya Berry, and their children and grandchildren.

Table of Contents

1 Paragraphs from a Notebook 5

2 The Commerce of Violence 15

3 A Forest Conversation 21

4 Local Economies to Save the Land and the People 55

5 Less Energy, More Life 69

6 Caught in the Middle 73

7 On Receiving One of the Dayton Literary Peace Prizes 97

8 Our Deserted Country 105

9 For the 50-Year Farm Bill 159

10 On Being Asked for "A Narrative for the Future" 167

Acknowledgments 177

Editorial Reviews

"If you break it, you own it." In this new collection of essays, octogenarian author Wendell Berry (The Unsettling of America; What Are People For?) applies Colin Powell's foreign policy advice to the environment we all share. Berry's ecological concerns have always been expressed with poetic simplicity. Now the man who wrote "Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you" addresses the ever deepening crisis of climate change and our own nation's failed energy policies. An important work from one of our finest and most beloved essayists. Editor's recommendation.

★ 01/26/2015
“Valid criticism,” poet, conservationist, and national treasure Berry (The Unsettling of America) declares in his latest collection’s opening essay, “attempts a just description of our condition.” The book goes on to vivisect, with uncommon lucidity and common sense, the accruing damages of the “industrial economy and its so-called free market,” as well as our “commerce of violence” that profits from the “destruction of land and people” as shown in the essay “Our Deserted Country,” about the wastelands created by industrial agriculture. Berry’s crusade is not for conservation but repair, and in another selection, “Local Economies,” he offers a “reasonable permanence of dwelling place and vocation” as one remedy. Adhering to an uncompromising ethic that combines stern humility with compassion, Berry rallies a sense of hope (though “the task of hope becomes harder”) and responsibility for confronting growing physical and political problems, represented here by the tortured political rhetoric he unpacks in “Caught in the Middle.” Moreover, he offers a range of practical, “small solutions”—changes of principle, not policy—that both chasten the reader and inspire him or her to continue “our long, necessary, difficult, happy effort” to protect “our only world.” These essays are classic Berry, balancing the fiery conservationist prophet with the lucid and thoughtful poet; the reflective farmer with the visionary writer. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"Asking hard questions and providing even harder answers, Berry never disappoints. Our Only World is worth a nice, slow, contemplative read."—Circe Institute

"Stern but compassionate, author Wendell Berry raises broader issues that environmentalists rarely focus on.... In one sense Berry is the voice of a rural agrarian tradition that stretches from rural Kentucky back to the origins of human civilization. But his insights are universal because "Our Only World" is filled with beautiful, compassionate writing and careful, profound thinking."—Associated Press

"Even at age 80, Wendell Berry continues to be one of the most compelling social critics of our age. This new collection of essays enhances the basic themes of his previous work, including local economies, conservation of energy, and opposition any powers that destroy land, creatures, and human life. If you are weary of the injustice embedded in daily American life, Berry offers here not easy answers, but rather a vision of a rich and sustainable way of life." —Relevant Mag

"“Our Only World” is quintessential Berry....When you pick up this volume, be prepared to spend some time with it because the Big Ideas it holds within its pages are ones you will ruminate on for a long, long time to come." —Leo Weekly

From the Publisher