Home Economics

by Wendell Berry

“My work has been motivated,” Wendell Berry has written, “by a desire to make myself responsibly at home in this world and in my native and chosen place.” In Home Economics , a collection of fourteen essays, Berry explores this process and continues to discuss what it means to make oneself “responsibly at home.”

His title reminds us that the very root of economics is stewardship, household management. To paraphrase Confucius, a healthy planet is made up of healthy nations that are simply healthy communities sharing common ground, and communities are gatherings of households. A measure of the health of the planet is economics—the health of its households. Any process of destruction or healing must begin at home. Berry speaks of the necessary coherence of the “Great Economy,” as he argues for clarity in our lives, our conceptions, and our communications. To live is not to pass time, but to spend time.

Whether as critic or as champion, Wendell Berry offers careful insights into our personal and national situation in a prose that is ringing and clear.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Economics, Philosophy, Ecology, Theology, Environment

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1987

About the author

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."

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read just about all of Berry’s fiction, but this was my first exposure to his nonfiction essays. Although by and large focused on agriculture, I was surprised to find applications to my life as corporate citizen (I work for a large insurance company as a data scientist) and as a member of the visible church.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the early to mid-80s, the relevance of this book of essays to America today is astounding. Berry does not fit any category in today's political scene - thinking and acting locally, at once conservative and pro-environment, anti-government and anti-corporation, he is an old guard American of the best kind. This book will change the way you think and, more importantly, will make you think about issues you've never thought about before (the ignored relevance of topsoil to agriculture and the economy, for one).

Some quotes:

"A powerful class of itinerant professional vandals is now pillaging the country and laying it waste. Their vandalism is not called by that name because of its enormous profitability (to some) and the grandeur of its scale. If one wrecks a private home, that is vandalism, but if, to build a nuclear power plant, one destroys good farmland, disrupts a local community, and jeopardizes lives, homes, and properties within an area of several thousand square miles, *that* is industrial progress."

"For the thing that troubles us about the industrial economy is exactly that it is not comprehensive enough, that, moreover, it tends to destroy what it does not comprehend, and that it is dependent upon much that it does not comprehend."

"And I would call our economy, not materialistic, but abstract, intent upon the subversion of both spirit and matter by abstractions of value and of power. In such an economy, it is impossible to value anything that one *has*. What one has (house or job, spouse or car) is only valuable insofar as it can be exchanged for what one believes one wants - a limitless economic process based upon boundless dissatisfaction."

[Maureen E · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://bysinginglight.wordpress.com/2...

I recently read Home Economics by Wendell Berry for either the second or third time. I am a Berry fan and this is one of his best books, in my opinion. It contains fourteen essays on a variety of subjects including national defense, higher education, and the family farm. He speaks from where he is: a farmer dedicated to the preservation of sustainable agriculture. This does not mean that he speaks only to those like him. In fact I see his wide appeal as one of his main strengths. His message begins with the farm but extrapolates to a national and international level. He is obviously widely read and has created a cohesive and (to me) convincing view of our world.
His writing style is clear and at times funny. He is emotional without being maudlin; respectful of the past without sentimentalizing it. He is realistic without being pessimistic.

I do not always entirely agree with him. At times he skirts a little too close to pantheism for my taste. While I agree for the most part with his assessment of higher education I feel that ignoring the smaller private university in some measure reduces the impact of his argument when he discusses higher education. However, I recognize that the main thrust of this discussion is based on the state supported public universities.

All in all, I find Berry's world view and writing most refreshing and convincing. Home Economics is an excellent read for anyone although most especially those interested in agriculture.

"It is this balance of the natural and the human that makes a landscape look comfortable and comforting, and this is the work of an old kind of mind, of long attention and familiarity--a mind as different as possible from the industrial or moder mind, which comes into a place, aware only of its own demands, imposing its own geometry."
~Wendell Berry, Home Economics, "Irish Journal"

"Education in the true sense, of course, is an enablement to serve--both the living human community in its natural household or neighborhood and the precious cultural possessions that the living community inherits or should inherit."
~Wendell Berry, Home Economics, "Higher Education and Home Defense"

[Rachel Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to properly digest this book? The idea of subsistence is at the heart of his vision for our local economies. It requires us to rely on our neighbors to supply our basic needs (including…and maybe even chiefly…our entertainment and enjoyment!) and be relied upon in return. To develop a small economy, in the fullest sense of the word, I must follow what Berry calls the fundamental laws of domestic or community economy: be thrifty and generous, be independent and neighborly.

“Is such a community desirable? My answer, unhesitatingly, is yes. But that is an answer notoriously subject to the charge of sentimentality or nostalgia...and so I am pushed along to another question, a more interesting one: is such a community necessary? Again, I think the answer must be yes, and here we have access to some manner of proof…”

[Bibi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good show

[Metatron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic. His assertion of the relationship between community and economy are what interested me the most. Berry poses the question of whether communities have a value other than emotional value because, according to him, community is a concept no one bothers to quarrel with. He asserts the modern thought is that we are better off with corporate industries, therefore communities are run under the assumption they have no real value. Berry, however, believes otherwise. Using the experience from two friends, Loyce and Owen Flood, Berry provides an example of what he believes to be an ideal community. The Floods’ community from 1938 was autonomous, the elders conveyed practical skills and knowledge to the young, and they did not depend on financiers or big corporations in order to subsist. He claims communities like this have ceased to exist and this is a huge loss for him. He proceeds to argue about how we should have more ideal economies like the Floods', and to an extent I wouldn't exactly agree if we grafted certain qualities from said community, but I wouldn't oppose it either. I just really wouldn't care. I feel in this age it's not necessary to have huge, united communities. It shouldn't be an obligation, which is what Berry sometimes implies. I don't want to get to know my neighbours simply because I am completely fine being on my own. Do I expect them to aid me by calling the authorities if they heard me, or someone from my family, scream my lungs off? Yes. The same way I expect them to expect me to call the authorities if I heard a serious disturbance in their home! But that is the only neighbourliness I want and need. I don't want to get to know them simply because in the digital age, a community bordered on zero technology to help themselves and merely scrap by because they think unity is all they need is not necessary. Berry wants a community from 1938 to be the standard community of 2016. How is this logical? (Mind you, this book was published on 1987, but Berry still stands by what he has said on this book today)

Don't get me wrong--I agree people should become more autonomous, I do believe we should rely less on big corporations. But I don't believe we need communities like Berry's ideal one. Take into account Berry is a guy who despises technology--he has no refrigerators, no computers and basically refrains himself from using anything technological which has advanced the human species. He uses solar panels because he doesn't want to support the power industry, which I admire and concur with. But I do not agree with depriving yourself from things which are necessary in the digital age. I do not think it is a viable form of living for the common denominator and families caught up in the day-to-day. Berry claims in one of his chapters that people call him a sentimental guy for wanting the 1938 community back and refutes that he is not. But honestly? I think he is. I think he's nostalgic, and this nostalgia prevents him from accepting the technological advancement of mankind. I don't agree with this.

In overall, yes, this was interesting. It was a different perspective albeit a sometimes irrational one. I feel that in many ways Berry is very subjective, though his whole goal is to be as objective as possible. I don't agree with the heart of this argument and his way of living, but it works for him. I just don't like the pietistic, oftentimes aloof tone he conveys to the reader. It's one thing to use a tone that implies you mean business, but it's a completely different thing to use a tone which criticises and judges your reader. One of the most important things, if not the most important thing, in academic writing is building common ground with your reader. You achieve this with a non-judgemental tone and I think Berry fails in this aspect, which crumbles his point to many people and may not make them want to read what he has to say.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

These essays were written by Wendell Berry in the 80's, but are even more relevant today. My favorite essays were "Two Economies", "Men and Women in Search of Common Ground", and "Preserving Wildness". The book is dedicated to Wes Jackson - these two wise men are great friends and constantly throw their ideas back and forth in an attempt to make sense of the world. I am delighted to learn that Wendell Berry is again going to be one of the speakers at this years Prairie Festival at The Land Institute, Wes Jackson's life work.

As I daily use my wooden salad bowls which we bought from a wood carver in Nicaragua in the 70's and marvel how they still are in perfect condition, I delighted in the following passage from the "Preserving Wildness" essay.

"To me, this means simply that we are not safe in assuming that we can preserve wildness by making wilderness preserves. Those of us who see that wildness and wilderness need to be preserved are going to have to understand the dependence of these things upon our domestic economy and our domestic behavior. If we do not have an economy capable of valuing in particular terms the durable good of localities and communities, then we are not going to be able to preserve anything. We are going to have to see that , if we want our forests to last, then we must make wood products that last, for our forests are more threatened by shoddy workmanship than by clear-cutting or by fire. Good workmanship-that is, careful, considerate, and loving work-requires us to think considerately of the whole process, natural and cultural, involved in the making of wooden artifacts, because the good worker does not share the industrial contempt for 'raw material'. The good worker loves the board before it becomes a table, loves the tree before it yields the board, loves the forest before it gives up the tree. The good worker understands that a badly made artifact is both an insult to its user and a danger to its source. We could say, the, that good forestry begins with the respectful husbanding of the forest that we call stewardship and ends with well-made tables and chairs and houses, just as good agriculture begins with steweardship of the fields and ends with good meals."

[Natalie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing, Berry will change the way you look at the world.

[Mallory]

Everyone should own a book of essays to read when novels and textbooks become to tedious.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I kill myself in a tractor accident, blame Wendell Berry. And thank him.

[Allyson Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was nothing like I expected it to be, in a good way! I had never read anything by Wendell Berry previously, but he comes so highly recommended that I was eager to read anything with his name on it. The book is a collection of 14 essays, ranging in topics from the importance of topsoil to nuclear warfare to localized community. All of the essays are centered around Berry's belief that the root of most of our society's ills is a lack of responsibility and stewardship at the base level: the home. Our homes no longer have any tie to our economy and therefore our lives have become divorced from the values that make a society great. He then argues that we have foolishly adopted an industrialized view of society and humanity as a whole that is completely false and harmful. We have believed, he says, that
1. Value equals prices
2. All relations are mechanical
3. The sufficient and definitive human motive is competitiveness
All of these philosophies have seeped into every aspect of what it means to be a human in our modern society, leaving no room for treating ourselves, fellow humans, animals, the earth, etc. with the respect and dignity given to them by God. In order to recover or restore our society to what it must be (self sufficient, community-oriented, rightly ordered, etc.), the work must begin in our homes and our communities. Berry is absolutely brilliant and I highly recommend the book.

[Davin Broadhurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not exaggerating when I say this book is one of the books I will remember for the rest of my life. I think at least the first five essays are required reading for ANYONE. It is remarkable how much has not changed since Berry wrote this in 1984–and how correct he was on the effects of industrialization on society and nature. “Irish Journal” is a work of art and combined with the first essay is by far the greatest argument for Wendell Berry’s thoughts in this book. “Two Economies” and its discussion on the Kingdom of God and the Great Economy is in my opinion one of the best ideas on how to make an economy of today in line with the principles of Jesus. (Spoilers: it isn’t kind to global capitalism) and “The Loss of the University” should absolutely be read by anyone who claims to be college educated—it may very well refute that claim. I highly recommend this book to all. Even its latter chapters on the family farm and community masterfully articulates the topics of proper agriculture and farming, which is an incredibly important facet of our society that most modern people take for granted and usually ignore completely (at least I definitely did, before reading this book.)

[Aden Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might as well have highlighted the whole book. Incredible.

[Amanda Erdman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know Wendell Berry is a genius and I appreciate his writing and I do like his poetry, but I find his books terribly boring. 😊😉🤷🏻‍♀️

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The term economics originally referred to household management, and to Wendell Berry, that's what it should remain still. Home Economics collects essays on the meaning and relation of economy to human life. In it, he deplores the cancerous growth of massive, unwieldy structures like agribusiness, globalization, and the state which destroy culture, communities, and the land, reducing the human experience to economic inputs. He ruminates thoughtfully on the value of more traditional ways of life, and advocates for an approach which is much more finely-granted. For Berry, the humane society is one built to a small scale, built on local economies wherein people, not institutions, are the primary actors, and where the relationships between people and the land are respectfully maintained.

Berry is a fascinating author. At first glance, he's manifestly romantic and old fashioned, advocating for the same kind of agrarian Republic of citizen-farmers that Thomas Jefferson yearned for. Though he's grounded in the past, quoting freely from classical poets and the Bible life, he's not mired by it: he does not despise cities as Jefferson and other agrarians did, and writes that if we wish to preserve the wilderness and farms, we must preserve our cities, too. Though he doesn't outline his reasoning, it may be similar to that of David Owen's, who sees energy-efficient cities as the best hope for combating climate change. It's certainly a better hope than car-dependent suburbia, which Berry despises (however much a gentle and aging scholar-farmer can despise something). Berry urges readers to consider a return to localism not just because it's better for the environment (his veneration for which is religiously inspired), and not just because the new institutions are oppressive and destructive but because Nature has a way of correcting the unsustainable. That which cannot sustain itself will not: eventually it will fail. We will not persist living as we do now forever: our choice is in how and when we change. In the hereafter, Berry writes, we may ask forgiveness for the crimes Nature has judged us for, but God has never shown any inclination to overturn her just sentences.

At times a warning, the vision of Home Economics is not dire. In elaborating on the weaknesses of industrialized and globalized modernity, he affirms that the ongoing desecration of human life and the planet will not long endure -- and in articulating what was lost, he makes clear to modern readers what it is they miss without being able to describe; the bonds of family and community life, attachment to place, and the sense of a life of meaning and purpose. His holistic vision offers to restore those powers laid waste in getting and spending.

Related:
Folks, This Ain't Normal, Joel Salatin. Salatin advocates some of the same ideas, at least in terms of farm ecology. He's more cheerfully manic and provocative, though.
Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey (on the virtues of the wilderness)

[RYD · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of books of essays or short stories, some of the pieces in this were better than others. I’ve always heard good things about Wendell Berry, who seems to have a pretty dedicated following. As someone originally from Alaska, my idea of nature is more on the wilderness side than the farming side, but it is hard not to respect Berry and his way of viewing the world. I was particularly struck by his embrace of the value of community, and by his criticism of the shoddiness of the industrial economy, told even before the prevalence of Walmart and its products that break as soon as you use them.

Two passages I highlighted, the first about visiting Ireland:

“Of the House of Columcille and other such buildings, Peter said, ‘They hadn’t time to do poor work.’ He was talking about the modern inversion of production standards – the prevalent assumption that we haven’t time, or can’t afford, to work well. But, of course, nobody ever has time or can ever afford to do poor work; that poor work is affordable is an illusion created by the industrial economy. If bad work is done, a high price must be paid for it; all the ‘economy’ can do is forward the bill to a later generation – and, in the process, make it payable in suffering.”

Or more succinctly:

“We are going to have to see that, if we want our forests to last, then we must make wood products that last, for our forests are more threatened by shoddy workmanship than by clear-cutting or by fire.”

[Joe Saperstein]

*HAVE NOT FINISHED*

Read a few chapters of this and found it interesting. Enjoyed the journal entries. Especially the sequence about the dialectic between open spaces and periphery, field and forest, etc. At some point I get a little bit ticked off because Wendell seems very anti-urban and idealistic, almost to a fault. We literally cannot escape the effects of industrialization and urbanization, so I sometimes feel salty about how much time Wendell spends reminiscing about old farming methods. Like how much of the populous can this realistically apply to? Sorry, I'm such an urbanist that I really get salty about Wendell sometimes.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh I did love this book, am still mulling over, every day, these ideas, a month later. One thing I love about the organization is how the same concept will get returned to throughout, an idea reworked, fine-tuned. I want to find in these words a rebuttal to my brother's "But that's so inefficient!" I know it is there.

One wants to say "inspiring" and "life-changing."

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wendell Berry writes about change, how economic paradigms have adversely affected our country's idea of itself, how change from a people centered economy to an industrial economy has lowered the value of community and family.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great essay collection by Berry. Having read many of his poems, it was a pleasure to hear him further elucidate his ideas on Community, nature, and the University. Berry explains how we miss treat and destroy the land because it simply belongs to an abstract idea called “nature.” Increasing urbanization means that fewer and fewer of us live on land for which we grow to care for, to depend on. When people owned and ran their own farms, they engaged in careful husbandry since they are very existence was dependent upon the health of their place. However, divorced from land, we only carry nature as an abstract idea. Few people would sacrifice for an abstract idea. Cultivating healthy land takes intimate knowledge experience. These things are in short putssupply today.

Berry seems to have healthy communities as a consistent telos that connected his writings. An individual’s Health was reliant upon their network of interrelationships. Berry’s novels inspired by beautiful pictures of this community, but it is writing sure some challenging ideas for how to accomplish this.

As I read this book with a friend, we were struck with a sense of sadness again and again. While Wendell Berry’s Fridays me up acted as possible advice to follow 50 years ago, we consistently concluded that many of his recommendations now we’re only possible for the most privileged and wealthy individuals. unless you grew up on a farm, how does one developed a sensitive relationship with land and place? The economics of farming are so changed, it is hard to conceive of how we could live dependent on the land without participating in the broader modern economy. It seems to us that Berry puts and emphasis on many virtues that are of a secondary value over values/virtues that are primary.

His essay on the devolution of the University is helpful. Again, he explains how universities are disjointed bodies that have no clear purpose anymore. They do not attempt to form humans and are detached from the needs of local communities. While funded by states and local areas, universities do not serve their communities but instead make further atomized, upwardly mobile professionals. Instead of learning FROM books, post-modern people seek to learn ABOUT them. It is as if the post-modern person is already a “finished product” without a need to be shaped and developed.

A quotation to end: “ for the sake of its own health, a university must be interested in the question of the truth of what it teaches, then, for the sake of the world‘s health, it must be interested in the fate of that truth and the uses made of it in the world. It must want to know where where it’s graduates live, where they work, and what they do. Do they return home with their knowledge to enhance and protect the life of their neighborhoods? Do they join the upperly mobile professional force and exploiting and strangle co communities, both human and natural, all over the country?…”

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense, thought-filled, and thoughtful, Wendell Berry's collection of essays, Home Economics, invites me to set aside some quiet time to focus, read, ponder and consider, and create my own response.

There is a lot of overlap in these essays, specific ideas spiral through many of the pieces. Some of the overarching themes are the connections between all, the negative influence of the industrial economy, the incalculable value of community, and the hubris of humans.

I agree with much of what Berry says in these essays. As a society we don't value the non-tangibles. How can I believe in an economy that only looks at gross domestic product to see if we are flourishing? an economy that doesn't subtract value for topsoil lost and for water fouled? I agree with his statement:

“It would have to be measured by the health of its communities, both human and natural."

Berry writes of ideas I have thought prior to reading this collection. For example: Wouldn't we have a stronger economy if rather than making throw away products we used good quality materials, made products that lasted, and challenged workers to create these products to the best of their ability? With this approach we are conserving resources, allowing people to use their brains and hands and to be satisfied by their work, employing more people, most likely creating less pollution, and keeping more money in local economies.

And he writes perspectives I have not considered.

I do not agree with all of his thoughts and conclusions such as the purpose of university--is it to develop a person as a thoughtful human capable of writing and speaking well or is it to teach one within more circumscribed limits to fill a specific job? I find this essay too narrow in the possibilities it offers.

I find the piece "Two Economies" circuitous, and I struggle in places to follow Berry's train of thought. I think what he is trying to say is that what will best serve us is to obtain the maximum good for the most people with the minimum consumption and good stewardship of the land/resources.

This collection consists of 14 essays which include the topics: the loss of communities and family farms, the overuse of technology and the underuse of human labor, national defense, and surplus farmers as the unemployed. Whether or not you agree with his opinions, Berry will provoke thought on many subjects that are issues just as current today as when he wrote these essays in the 1980's.

[Nathan]

patient and thought provoking; makes me want to live differently and do differently; at times this is a despairing of modern life and mourning of loss, but also a call to not just live along the grain of modern indisutrial society and instead seek first the “kingdom of god” in whatever sense he means that

notable essays:
(1) higher education and home defense - increasing distance between those instituting industrial progress and those impacted by its negative outputs; education critique, interesting comment on associating value to education can’t be mechanical i.e., doesn’t make sense to equate the value of a book with the ink and paper it was written on
(2) two economies - my fav; extrapolates the kingdom of God as a general higher rule of authority and order that governs the movements of the world and reflects on how “little economies” must live in harmony with this; interesting thoughts on value creation (humans should not presume to create value but to transform things that already have value and our presumption of creators of value leads always to inflation and usury), on resurrection and the analogy of topsoil, and on control using william blake’s analogy of two cogwheels which must always turn in opposition (which is the modern effort of control) vs ezekiel’s language of a wheel writhing a wheel
(3) men and women in search of common ground - incredible; the impact of making the home unproductive leaves men and women as consumers; we must work together to better understand eachother (simple but profound)

[A M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Between Berry’s apt discussion of the passage of time, even back in the mid 80s, his words still reign true today, perhaps even more so. As we see the consequences of our industrial economy and how it pressures and stifles our local economy and communities, he brings up really thought provoking questions that I think every single person should think about today, especially if you’re an American.

His discussion of 1960s Ireland versus 1980s Ireland was pretty insane. And that was only in the first part of the book! The essay about the collapse of the modern University made my brain explode. Berry deftly rides the line between right versus left, and adequately acknowledges that despite common belief, our solutions are not one sided in our country. We need to be able to see all sides of the coin before moving forward with ourselves. We need to inspire productive household economies and turn away from convenience and industrialism. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Corie Sanford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where Berry is the most old fashioned are also, I think, the ideas and trains of thought and opinion which make the most common sense. A friend laughed when I told her I was reading Berry. "You're always reading him," she said. "He has really settled into your conscience." I hope so.
This collection, written between 1983 and 1986, features topics and thoughts still relevant to our current geopolitical climate - if not even more important than they used to be. But Berry - bless him - doesn't use lofty language or abstract ideas. He settles into the amount of topsoil we have, the net worth of community, the daily and yearly actions of a local farmer. This is what I love him for - the deep practicality and intimate knowledge of what he loves, which is land, and people.

[Zachary Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

First book I’ve read by Wendell Berry and it was a great look into the effects of industrialization on society. It seems like this book was partially written to the modern farmer who’s given in to ‘the system’, but also partially written to anyone who grew up in the suburbs and didn’t have a lick of notion what life before technology looked like. Would recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in economics, farming, sustainability, or industrialization...also, anyone who’s looking to redefine Home Ec as more than just cooking and cleaning.

[Chris Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don’t let the fact these essays are superficially about farming deter you. Berry is channeling our whole world not just rural Kentucky. It is humbling to find a thinker so lucid about the atavistic world we have created who has been here all along. The questions he asked 40 years ago, it turns out, were timeless and prescient. Perhaps we should start to grapple with the answers while we still can.

[Kitap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humans, like all other creatures, must make a difference; otherwise, they cannot live. But unlike other creatures, humans must make a choice as to the kind and scale of the difference they make. If they choose to make too small a difference, they diminish their humanity. If they choose to make too great a difference, they diminish nature, and narrow their subsequent choices; ultimately, they diminish or destroy themselves. Nature, then, is not only our source but also our limit and measure.
(Getting Along with Nature,p.7)

A powerful class of itinerant professional vandals is now pillaging the country and laying it waste. Their vandalism is not called by that name because of its enormous profitability (to some) and the grandeur of its scale. If one wrecks a private home, that is vandalism, but if, to build a nuclear power plant, one destroys good farmland, disrupts a local community, and jeopardizes lives, homes, and properties within an area of several thousand square miles, that is industrial progress.
(Higher Education and Home Defense, p.50)

The Great Economy, like the Tao of the Kingdom of God, is both known and unknown, visible and invisible, comprehensible and mysterious. It is, thus, the ultimate condition of our experience and of the practical questions rising from our experience, and it imposes on our consideration of those questions an extremity of seriousness and an extremity of humility.
(Two Economies, p.56-7)

It is startling to recognize the extent to which the industrial economy depends upon controlled explosions—in mines, in weapons, in the cylinders of engines, in the economic pattern known as "boom or bust." This dependence is the result of a progress that can be argued for, but those who argue for it must recognize that, in all these means, good ends are served by a destructive principle, an association that is difficult to control if it is not limited; moreover, they must recognize that our failure to limit this association has raised the specter of uncontrollable explosion. Nuclear holocaust, if it comes, will be the final detonation of an explosive economy.
(Two Economies, p.69)

There is no "outside" to the Great Economy, no escape into either specialization or generality, no "time off." Even insignificance is no escape, for in the membership of the Great Economy everything signifies; whatever we do counts. If we do not serve what coheres and endures, we serve what disintegrates and destroys.
(Two Economies, p.75)

Objectivity, in practice, means that one studies or teaches ones subject as such, without concern for its relation to other subjects or to the world—that is, without concerns for its truth. If one is concerned, if one cares, about the truth or falsity of anything, one cannot be objective: one is glad if it is true and sorry if it is false; one believes it if is judged true and disbelieves it if it is judged to be false. . .And this work of judgement cannot take place at all with respect to one thing or one subject alone. . . Thus, if teachers aspire to the academic virtue of objectivity, they must teach as if their subject has nothing to do with anything beyond itself.
(The Loss of the University, p. 90-1)

Belief precedes will. One either believes or one does not, and, if one believes, then one willingly believes. If one disbelieves, even unwillingly, all the will in the world cannot make one believe.
(The Loss of the University, p.93)

The smallest possible "survival unit," indeed, appears to be the universe. At any rate, the ability of an organism to survive outside the universe has yet to be demonstrated.
(Men and Women in Search of Common Ground, p.117)

[W]hen nothing is valued for what it is, everything is destined to be wasted. Once the values of things refer only to their future usefulness, then an infinite withdrawal of value from the living present has begun. Nothing (and nobody) can then exist that is not theoretically replaceable by something (or somebody) more valuable.
(A Nation Rich in Natural Resources, p.136)

The present economy. . .does not account for affection at all, which is to say that it does not account for value. It is simply a description of the career of money as it preys upon both nature and human society.
(Preserving Wildness, p.144)

For human beings the spiritual and the practical are, and should be, inseparable. Alone, practicality becomes dangerous; spirituality, alone, becomes feeble and pointless. Alone, either becomes dull. Each is the others discipline, in a sense, and in good work the two are joined.
(Preserving Wildness, p.145)

The worst disease of the world now is probably the ideology of technological heroism, according to which more and more people willingly cause large-scale effects that they do not foresee and that they cannot control. This is the ideology of the professional class of the industrial nations—a class whose allegiance to communities and places has been dissolved by their economic motives and by their educations.
(Preserving Wildness, p. 150)

[William Guerrant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Invariably, whenever I read Wendell Berry I find myself wondering why I ever read anything else.

In these 14 essays Mr. Berry advocates farming better, necessarily showing that doing so means living better and being better.

[SAMKyrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wendell has an incredibly unique personal politics and philosophy that made for a deeply satisfying read that had me feeling a refreshing perspective on a surprisingly number of contemporary issues for a 40 year old essay collection.

[Laura Cohran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read some Wendell Berry for class and loved it, but I don't think this was the right book to start with for independent reading of his work. I will be back, but perhaps to a more accessible starting point.