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Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power
It is easy to feel helpless in the face of the torrent of information about environmental catastrophes taking place all over the world.
In this powerful and provocative book, Scottish writer and campaigner Alastair McIntosh shows how it is still possible for individuals and communities to take on the might of corporate power and emerge victorious.
As a founder of the Isle of Eigg Trust, McIntosh helped the beleaguered residents of Eigg to become the first Scottish community ever to clear their laird from his own estate. And plans to turn a majestic Hebridean mountain into a superquarry were overturned after McIntosh persuaded a Native American warrior chief to visit the Isle of Harris and testify at the government inquiry.
This extraordinary book weaves together theology, mythology, economics, ecology, history, poetics and politics as the author journeys towards a radical new philosophy of community, spirit and place. His daring and imaginative responses to the destruction of the natural world make Soil and Soul an uplifting, inspirational and often richly humorous read.
In this powerful and provocative book, Scottish writer and campaigner Alastair McIntosh shows how it is still possible for individuals and communities to take on the might of corporate power and emerge victorious.
As a founder of the Isle of Eigg Trust, McIntosh helped the beleaguered residents of Eigg to become the first Scottish community ever to clear their laird from his own estate. And plans to turn a majestic Hebridean mountain into a superquarry were overturned after McIntosh persuaded a Native American warrior chief to visit the Isle of Harris and testify at the government inquiry.
This extraordinary book weaves together theology, mythology, economics, ecology, history, poetics and politics as the author journeys towards a radical new philosophy of community, spirit and place. His daring and imaginative responses to the destruction of the natural world make Soil and Soul an uplifting, inspirational and often richly humorous read.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
85 people are currently reading
1136 people want to read
About the author
Alastair McIntosh
34 books50 followersAlastair McIntosh is an Isle of Lewis-raised writer, broadcaster and campaigning academic best known for his work on land reform on Eigg, in helping to stop the Harris superquarry; also for developing human ecology as an applied academic discipline in Scotland. He holds a degree of BSc in geography, submajoring in psychology and moral philosophy from the University of Aberdeen (1977), an MBA, specialising in finance, from the University of Edinburgh (1981) and a PhD by Published Works on liberation theology and contemporary Scottish land reform from the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster (2008).
His book, "Soil and Soul" (Aurum Press, 2001), has been described as "No Logo in a Fair Isle jumper" by Susan Flockhart of the Sunday Herald, “world-changing” by George Monbiot, "life-changing" by the Bishop of Liverpool, and "truly mental" by musician Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Other books include a poetry collection, “Love and Revolution”, from Luath Pess (2006); “Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition” – published by Birlinn in June 2008 and described by Michael Russell MSP, the Scottish Government’s Minister for the Environment, as “a profoundly important book”; and “Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality”, due in October 2008 as a Schumacher Briefing (Green Books) with endorsement and research funding from WWF International.
He has also featured in the Wall Street Journal for knocking a psychological hole in Gallagher's Silk Cut cigarette advertising campaign; served as a consultant to Groupe Credit Mutuel, France’s largest mutual bank, on the meaning of mutuality; sits (unpaid) on the Sustainability Stakeholders Panel of Lafarge, the biggest construction materials company in the world, that he helped to see off from the Harris superquarry; he has lectured on the theology of land reform at the Economics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences; served as a theological consultant on nonviolence to the World Council of Churches; and every year, for the past decade, has addressed 400 senior military officers on the Advanced Command & Staff Course at the Joint Services Command & Staff College. He is a Fellow of Scotland's Centre for Human Ecology, a Visiting Fellow of the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, and in 2006 was appointed to an honorary position in Strathclyde University as Scotland’s first Visiting Professor of Human Ecology. He is a regular presenter for Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland and has some 200 items of published work to his name, many of which are available at www.AlastairMcIntosh.com .
Alastair’s work seeks to connect people, place and spirituality into a more full understanding of community. He sees global crises as crises of the human condition requiring evolution that is more cultural than political, economic or technical. Spirituality for him is “that which gives life” and specifically, “life as love made visible.” As a Quaker, he approaches this from both Christian and interfaith perspectives. Walter Wink has described him as, “in my opinion, and apparently in many others, one of the best theologians in Scotland today.” Others consider his views heretical, and in 1996 his teaching post at Edinburgh University was controversially axed in connection with his work challenging corporate and landed power. He lives with his wife, Vérène Nicolas, in the Greater Govan area of Glasgow, where he is a founding director of the GalGael Trust working with local people in hard-pressed circumstances. He and Vérène often undertake events jointly.
His book, "Soil and Soul" (Aurum Press, 2001), has been described as "No Logo in a Fair Isle jumper" by Susan Flockhart of the Sunday Herald, “world-changing” by George Monbiot, "life-changing" by the Bishop of Liverpool, and "truly mental" by musician Thom Yorke of Radiohead. Other books include a poetry collection, “Love and Revolution”, from Luath Pess (2006); “Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition” – published by Birlinn in June 2008 and described by Michael Russell MSP, the Scottish Government’s Minister for the Environment, as “a profoundly important book”; and “Rekindling Community: Connecting People, Environment and Spirituality”, due in October 2008 as a Schumacher Briefing (Green Books) with endorsement and research funding from WWF International.
He has also featured in the Wall Street Journal for knocking a psychological hole in Gallagher's Silk Cut cigarette advertising campaign; served as a consultant to Groupe Credit Mutuel, France’s largest mutual bank, on the meaning of mutuality; sits (unpaid) on the Sustainability Stakeholders Panel of Lafarge, the biggest construction materials company in the world, that he helped to see off from the Harris superquarry; he has lectured on the theology of land reform at the Economics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences; served as a theological consultant on nonviolence to the World Council of Churches; and every year, for the past decade, has addressed 400 senior military officers on the Advanced Command & Staff Course at the Joint Services Command & Staff College. He is a Fellow of Scotland's Centre for Human Ecology, a Visiting Fellow of the Academy of Irish Cultural Heritages at the University of Ulster, and in 2006 was appointed to an honorary position in Strathclyde University as Scotland’s first Visiting Professor of Human Ecology. He is a regular presenter for Thought for the Day on BBC Radio Scotland and has some 200 items of published work to his name, many of which are available at www.AlastairMcIntosh.com .
Alastair’s work seeks to connect people, place and spirituality into a more full understanding of community. He sees global crises as crises of the human condition requiring evolution that is more cultural than political, economic or technical. Spirituality for him is “that which gives life” and specifically, “life as love made visible.” As a Quaker, he approaches this from both Christian and interfaith perspectives. Walter Wink has described him as, “in my opinion, and apparently in many others, one of the best theologians in Scotland today.” Others consider his views heretical, and in 1996 his teaching post at Edinburgh University was controversially axed in connection with his work challenging corporate and landed power. He lives with his wife, Vérène Nicolas, in the Greater Govan area of Glasgow, where he is a founding director of the GalGael Trust working with local people in hard-pressed circumstances. He and Vérène often undertake events jointly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
August 14, 2010
This was a great read on several levels. McIntosh is an "independent scholar" having been deeply involved in the founding (and decline) of the Center for Human Ecology at the University of Edinburgh. The book is an autobiographical account of his participation in activism in Scotland on a variety of levels, particularly in seeking to defeat the Harris superquarry (a group of European entrepreneurs wanted to basically level a Scottish island in order to make... gravel) and the remarkable story of the Isle of Eigg. He combines an appreciation for indigenous Scottish cultures, the preservation of precious island ecologies, and what he describes as "psychospirituality." McIntosh is an eclectic thinker, drawing on a very wide variety of sources, too wide in many cases, eliding important differences between very well developed theological traditions. This is my one reservation with McIntosh, in that he thinks of himself as a theologian, but isn't apparently invested enough in any particular theological tradition to really earn the title, remaining at best a theological hobbyist, a venture which I consider to be potentially somewhat dangerous.
With that said, his work in defense of the Islanders at Eigg is a fascinating story. For those who aren't aware, much of Scotland still operates under feudal land-ownership policies, by which a wealthy person or family owns the entirety of the land, and then benevolently leases it to the remaining islanders. The fact that such an unjust pattern of land-ownership still persists is nothing short of remarkable and I wouldn't believe it before I read the book.
In summary, I really recommend you read McIntosh in order to get aquainted with some of the issues and culture in environmental and social justice activism in Scotland. Don't, however, expect life-changing theological insight.
With that said, his work in defense of the Islanders at Eigg is a fascinating story. For those who aren't aware, much of Scotland still operates under feudal land-ownership policies, by which a wealthy person or family owns the entirety of the land, and then benevolently leases it to the remaining islanders. The fact that such an unjust pattern of land-ownership still persists is nothing short of remarkable and I wouldn't believe it before I read the book.
In summary, I really recommend you read McIntosh in order to get aquainted with some of the issues and culture in environmental and social justice activism in Scotland. Don't, however, expect life-changing theological insight.
October 24, 2025
One of my favourite books i've read to date. It was by my side on an ecological farm in Sweden and a cycling trip through the Hebrides. Took a while to get through (4 months) but by god it was worth it.
This is a broad ranging twin narrative of two tales regarding land reform in Scotland. The community buy out of the Isle of Eigg and the rejection of a superquarry in the middle of the Hebrides at Mount Roineabhal.
These stories are unpacked with so much depth, you'll get personal narrative from Mcintosh's upbringing in Luerbost, discussions of Scottish history, Celtic culture, nature writing, spirituality, discussions regarding colonialism, theology and so much more. If you desire to learn anything new about these topics, they're all in abundance in this book.
The stand out for me was his theological/spiritual outlook, Mcintosh unravels the spiritual underpinnings of these complex confrontations with landed power and private interests. It's confident writing, drawing from deeper; richer sources than the frankly overprescribed science-based, empirical outlook that dominates our times.
I've never gotten so much from a book, perhaps partly due to my incessant scribbling, note taking and revisiting throughout and after finishing it. I've been trialing a bit of a new system, safe to say I feel all the more connected to the ideas.
Please read!
This is a broad ranging twin narrative of two tales regarding land reform in Scotland. The community buy out of the Isle of Eigg and the rejection of a superquarry in the middle of the Hebrides at Mount Roineabhal.
These stories are unpacked with so much depth, you'll get personal narrative from Mcintosh's upbringing in Luerbost, discussions of Scottish history, Celtic culture, nature writing, spirituality, discussions regarding colonialism, theology and so much more. If you desire to learn anything new about these topics, they're all in abundance in this book.
The stand out for me was his theological/spiritual outlook, Mcintosh unravels the spiritual underpinnings of these complex confrontations with landed power and private interests. It's confident writing, drawing from deeper; richer sources than the frankly overprescribed science-based, empirical outlook that dominates our times.
I've never gotten so much from a book, perhaps partly due to my incessant scribbling, note taking and revisiting throughout and after finishing it. I've been trialing a bit of a new system, safe to say I feel all the more connected to the ideas.
Please read!
April 1, 2021
Environmental activism is often painful, but McIntosh's emphasis on the importance of community, place, connectedness and love as guiding principles makes the road feel much easier to travel.
This book is excellent. While at times the spiritual aspects may be tough-going for those who aren't religious, per se, the overall messages ring loud and clear. You'll also probably learn a lot about the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides, which is v fascinating.
Reading this gave me hope and a feeling of warmth in my heart. ❤️
This book is excellent. While at times the spiritual aspects may be tough-going for those who aren't religious, per se, the overall messages ring loud and clear. You'll also probably learn a lot about the Scottish Highlands and the Hebrides, which is v fascinating.
Reading this gave me hope and a feeling of warmth in my heart. ❤️
February 18, 2020
Fragments of a long gone past are still ready to ignite. Not to go back to but to illuminate the next step. Alastair McIntosh has a great sense for finding those little rocks to build a moving tale of hope and community. This book is a standing stone to remind me that things can and will change for the better if I follow my inner light. Loved it....
January 1, 2024
A wide-ranging and quite special book - by some distance my favourite of the three I have read so far by Alastair McIntosh (the others being Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition and Riders on the Storm: The Climate Crisis and the Survival of Being). It weaves together a braid of folklore, landscape, history, mythology and deeply-sourced spirituality: there are tens, perhaps over a hundred, references to both Old and New Testament scriptures, as well as several pages on liberation theology.
The book has two quite distinct parts. The first is a memoir of growing up as a doctor's son on the Isle of Lewis, almost an idyll of community self-reliance, but all the time against the backdrop of private landownership. Young Alastair gets up close and personal with visiting members of The Establishment, assisting on their hunting, shooting and fishing trips to the island. As he grows, he becomes more aware of the historical, political and cultural dimensions of his way of life. Here he is, first, on the timeless bardic culture of the Hebrides:
And, after leaving school, he is perplexed and angry that his schooling did not explain the Highland Clearances. He joins the dots between the local and the global.
As globalisation reaches its fingers into the island way of life, it disrupts the close link between fishing and eating. The fish becomes more valuable to export. The inhabitants wonder why fish stocks are suddenly declining. They find evidence to suggest that larger fishing vessels are trawling with vast nets at night. Where do these vessels come from? There's a shocking realisation.
But a few pages later there is also hope, drawn from our longer history:
The second part of the book focuses on two instances of McIntosh's activism on the isles of Eigg and Harris, which unfurl over the course of nearly a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s. Through most if not all of this period, McIntosh is based at the Centre for Human Ecology at Edinburgh University. The activism he describes consists mainly of being a founding trustee of Eigg's Residents' Association, giving speeches at public meetings, media interviews and soliciting the support of fellow leaders of spiritual traditions - both from the Free Church of Scotland and from indigenous peoples of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada.
This part of the book shows 'spiritual activism' in action, and there are more learned references to scriptures of many traditions here. How much impact these arguments had on the success of each campaign feels hard to discern. It is evident that, however strong McIntosh's command of ancient traditions and literature may be, he also has a shrewd ear for the kind of mythology that will appeal to modern audiences and get media coverage. He sets out to create a persuasive narrative and then control it. (This book could be seen as a case in point.) And he seems good at that.
I enjoyed the first part of the book more. I found the stories there more generous and more captivating. Perhaps paradoxically the wisdom traditions came across more strongly through the youthful autobiography than through the activist case studies.
The book has two quite distinct parts. The first is a memoir of growing up as a doctor's son on the Isle of Lewis, almost an idyll of community self-reliance, but all the time against the backdrop of private landownership. Young Alastair gets up close and personal with visiting members of The Establishment, assisting on their hunting, shooting and fishing trips to the island. As he grows, he becomes more aware of the historical, political and cultural dimensions of his way of life. Here he is, first, on the timeless bardic culture of the Hebrides:
This otherworld, partaking as it does of the eternal, provides a deeper perspective on reality than the temporal world of normality. Normality proceeds from the mythopoetic rather than the other way round. The mythopoetic is more fundamental. I think that this is terribly important: it is why, ultimately, the true bard does not just compose poetry. Rather, she or he is gripped by it at the gut level of cultural genesis. Poetics makes the bard. As such, to be poet is an outrageous calling, not a judicious career move. The bard at most invokes awareness or opens up consciousness to that which is already present in mythopoesis. As such, the bard mediates between consciousness and the ungian collective unconscious. This is why Scotland's greatest modern bard, Hugh MacDiarmid, was able to say: 'We must return to the ancient classical gaelic poets. For in them the inestimable treasure is wholly in contact with he inner surface of the unconscious’.
And, after leaving school, he is perplexed and angry that his schooling did not explain the Highland Clearances. He joins the dots between the local and the global.
If it is the case that many English people today take landed power for granted and even admire 'their' aristocracy, some explanation might lie in the fact that, as folk singer Dick Gaughan reminds us, 'It is easy to forget that England is the most colonised nation in history'. High land prices (which we all pay for in rents and mortgages) are really no more than a tax by the rich on the poor. And whereas most people will pay income tax, national insurance and VAT on their leisure activities, the rich employ armies of chartered accountants to show that their estates are 'businesses' and therefore tax-deductible. You can bet that the Land Rover from which the pheasant shoot takes place has usually been put through the books.
As globalisation reaches its fingers into the island way of life, it disrupts the close link between fishing and eating. The fish becomes more valuable to export. The inhabitants wonder why fish stocks are suddenly declining. They find evidence to suggest that larger fishing vessels are trawling with vast nets at night. Where do these vessels come from? There's a shocking realisation.
There was talk in the villages about dropping old cars into the sea to snag their nets. But it never happened. As the inshore fishing became more and more pointless over the course of just a year or two, the reason why nobody acted dawned with what, for me and my naivety, was a gentle horror. These were our boats: not east-coasters, not the marauding Spaniards, but local trawlers. There was nothing anybody could or would do.
But a few pages later there is also hope, drawn from our longer history:
Extinction is a crime against all time. It makes the world a poorer place, forever. The process is not new in human history. It has happened whenever there has been a period of major human change. The arrival of people in Australia 50,000 years ago, and in the Americas 11,000 years ago, coincided with large-scale extinctions of hunted species. It is important to remember this because, in rightly valuing the wisdom of indigenous peoples, we must not idealise them and thereby subject our readily maligned postmodern selves to unrealistic comparisons. The harmony with nature that we have come to associate with settled indigenous peoples has been in part a learned harmony. It has been kept in place by technological limitations, by totemistic respect for other life and by taboos against disrespect. But the fact that some societies have managed to achieve ecological harmony in the past is important to us today. It offers hope, showing that sustainable ways of life can, indeed, be compatible with human wellbeing.
The second part of the book focuses on two instances of McIntosh's activism on the isles of Eigg and Harris, which unfurl over the course of nearly a decade in the 1990s and early 2000s. Through most if not all of this period, McIntosh is based at the Centre for Human Ecology at Edinburgh University. The activism he describes consists mainly of being a founding trustee of Eigg's Residents' Association, giving speeches at public meetings, media interviews and soliciting the support of fellow leaders of spiritual traditions - both from the Free Church of Scotland and from indigenous peoples of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada.
This part of the book shows 'spiritual activism' in action, and there are more learned references to scriptures of many traditions here. How much impact these arguments had on the success of each campaign feels hard to discern. It is evident that, however strong McIntosh's command of ancient traditions and literature may be, he also has a shrewd ear for the kind of mythology that will appeal to modern audiences and get media coverage. He sets out to create a persuasive narrative and then control it. (This book could be seen as a case in point.) And he seems good at that.
I enjoyed the first part of the book more. I found the stories there more generous and more captivating. Perhaps paradoxically the wisdom traditions came across more strongly through the youthful autobiography than through the activist case studies.
September 1, 2017
I really, really enjoyed the first half of this book, which explores the history, theology, geography and culture of the Hebrides. The second half is the story of the long campaign of work by the people of Eigg to take their own island into community ownership. The story's very interesting; I found myself a bit irritated with McIntosh's style in this part of the book, but not enough to put me off reading it altogether.
February 25, 2009
The first part of the book about the Highland Clearances had me, as a sassenach, feeling slightly uncomfortable. Also I'm too much of a rationalist to feel happy with talk of faeries. Once he gets on to analysing our society in terms of Mammon and Moloch I begin to feel some kinship with McIntosh. A great happy chance find on GR.
February 15, 2014
One of my favorite books. So much poetry and beauty. It ties together the spiritual -soul with the -soil of the planet. He weaves stories, the bible, poetry, with references to many writers. Lovely
November 10, 2018
Impressed by the way mcintosh links the practical with the spiritual. Inspiring on the need to make community, creation and soul the heart of our lives
February 5, 2020
Inspirational and thought provoking tale of the power of community even when facing money, politics and prejudice. And sheds new light on the empowering quality of Scripture.
February 7, 2023
Soil and Soul: People Versus Corporate Power by Alastair McIntosh should be read by all current activists laboring for the establishment of a more eco-friendly economy and who actively protest exploitative extractive industries that do more and more harm to our planet. This is an excerpt from my favorite section on page 117: “The human search for God, then, is the age-old search for meaning in life—to find a life worth living. And really, that’s just so much to be living for: such scope for massive transformation of this world if we could only pull it off. That’s why it’s worth the trying. That’s why we shouldn’t give in and lie down before the idols. Just consider for example, what a life-long framework for, let’s say, a spiritually rich, holistic education might look like; it might start with soil structure and why the biochemistry of organic farming sustains biodiversity, … how biodiversity equates with optimal balance of arable crops and animal stock, … with awareness of energy alternatives that would mitigate dangers of global warming and keep the old and poor from being cold; with ecological restoration … with business structures that harmonize enterprise with accountability and co-operation; with an economics of ‘Fair Trade’; … with the spiritual ability to see anew why all life is providential; with healing skills based on advanced scientific and spiritual principles, with knowing the roots of artistic creativity and inspiration; with poetics and story, and learning how to listen to one another; with a participatory politics of empowerment; with awareness of the psychology of prejudice and the resolution of conflict; with a nonviolent civic-defense strategy and taking away the causes that give rise to war; with cherishing human life from cradle to grave; with extending the erotic into all of life, including sexual love; with the kids having fun and playing in treehouses; with the discovery of beauty as the touchstone of what is good; in short, with the building of community as right relationship between soil and society, powered up by the passion of the heart, steered by the reason of the head, and then applied by the skilled technique of the hand. And remember, this is not a pipe dream. Humankind is already well on the way towards understanding most of these principles. It’s just a matter of linking them up and applying them.”
December 12, 2022
I started this years ago and then set it aside. I picked it up again determined to finish it so I can remove it from my bookshelf. It was definitely a slow slog for me. The author is an academic and somehow manages to combine a storyteller's sense of what interests readers with an academic's sense of what will put them right to sleep. The narrative is both highly inspirational and mind-numbingly dull. About half was through the book I realized that the only way I was going to finish it is if I could skim the parts that couldn't engage me and get to the stories of the people and places that did. I'm glad this book is in the world because it tells a wonderful narrative of indigenous land rights and the healing of generational wounds. I would love to do some editing to make it more digestible. I would definitely print another edition in something larger than a 10-point font.
October 7, 2023
I struggled more with the style of this book than its content. I found it hard to follow the timeline and the people, things seemed to always be going off on tangents. There was also rather too much detail, almost 'he said, then I said, then he said' at times. However as the social history of a very particular people and place it was really interesting, especially so when you know you have family connections with those who were 'cleared' from landed estates in Scotland. David can beat Goliath still.
September 9, 2021
Always great to read a non- fiction book where Scotland takes centre stage. A book that would probably take 3 or 4 reads to fully appreciate, but a very inspiring story of a community coming together to take back control of their own land and destiny in the face of corporate greed. Liberating the common spaces of Scotland has to be an issue that cuts across party lines and should be a cornerstone of any post-independence landscape and this is a great place to start learning about it!
September 29, 2020
How can one not love Alistair McIntosh? He’s intelligent, compassionate, and delightfully mad - in the best possible way. Truly inspiring. I even liked the Christianity bits which I would normally hate.
March 10, 2023
It’s a great story but it did get bogged down with theology at times. I loved the earlier sections about past ways of life in the Highlands and especially the bardic tradition. Some colourful characters along the way .
March 6, 2025
Fascinating read. Authoritative and clearly based on the authors own experience. A fascinating reminder of how important places and specific areas of land are to the well being and soul of folk who belong to these .
October 6, 2020
Amazing, incredible, life changing
December 18, 2020
Lyn bookclub 2021
October 19, 2021
uplifting. Love the connections between indigeneity in the Scottish highlands with Native America.
March 30, 2022
Very important, well-researched and written book. I enjoyed learning all about it and it resonated with me so much.
October 4, 2022
Nice paradox., here.
February 10, 2023
Easily one of the more influential books I have ever read.
February 6, 2018
Soil and Soul has sat in my basement having had my wife give up on it after 30 pages. As I was clearing some bits out down there the book jumped out at me and I sat down to read it (a favourite procrastination technique of mine). It has fast become one of my favourite books. Having read other reviews, it seems McIntosh's style in blending psychology, spirituality, theology and poetry with his account of the Isle of Eigg's community land-takeover and the Isle of Harris super-quarry campaign can leave some people overwhelmed or cold on certain fronts. For me, I loved his narrative style, particularly his ease in taking a very particular anecdote and teasing out its universal implications.
Personally, I am a fan of the perennial wisdom tradition and so do not find too problematic the way McIntosh will quote theologian Walter Wink alongside Gaelic poets and historians. This winding narrative is invitational as much as descriptive and so invites the reader to a metaphorical fire-place to hear the wisdom gleaned from McIntosh's experience in community and social activism. At the heart of his accounts I find a compassion not only for the community he advocated and belonged to but also the 'Keith Schellenbergs' or lairds, who were in some respects the "enemy". This compassion arises through McIntosh's leaning on Walter Wink's (in my view, brilliant) reading of the 'Domination System' which can be understood not as the evil of a human being itself but the Spirit (interiority) of oppression that the system generates as an emergent property of organisations structured around greed. In that sense, what is to be tackled in terms of corporate power is these Powers that remain masked and which present themselves as ideological givens rather than contingent arrangements based upon the choices of people throughout history. As such, there is great hope in challenging these dominant narratives despite the loaded dice.
McIntosh delineates three 'modes' of humanity in taking on these powers which, in the chapter "The Womanhood of God", are described as logos, mythos and eros. Crudely speaking, logos is the modality of truth which can be characterised by rationality and proceeds along a course worked out through the intellect. Mythos, however, rather than being an irrational story believed for moral purpose, is the narrative structure which couches and therefore renders the work of logos meaningful. Although McIntosh does not spend much time arguing this point, within this picture there is an implicit critique of the possibility of logos to underpin our deepest convictions, as though the truths we live by can simply be formed by pinning together our various rational conclusions - an assumption very much active in modern thought. Instead, mythos is that which we are caught up in. Ultimately, the two are both necessarily and can operate in complementarity:
"The rational mind, if bereft of the soul's touchstone of beauty that poetry [in the broadest sense] offers, may come to know the world with great precision, but at the cost of fragmentation... By contrast, however if the poetic mind is stripped of logos, it will loses its co-ordinates. It will lose its sense of proportion, of the ratio, of order - and so readily fall prey to fanaticism, demagoguery, neurotic nostalgia and chaos." (p, 208)
Finally, eros can be understood as that more primal energy which animates our course along the lines of mythos and logos. This part particularly stood out to me as it seemed to be a reflection upon the work and methodology of Soil and Soul as a whole. It is a framework that can provide new ways to conceive of our place in the world and a sense of hope and purpose that is all too often lost in the West by way of distraction, mistrust, addiction and blame. In short, this book renewed my hope.
I haven't yet mentioned, though it is so central (and evident in the title) that McIntosh's work centres around our relationship to the soil and the earth and therefore asserts that the work of community regeneration is coincidental with a right relationship with the earth which is moreover, its proper foundation. Therefore, McIntosh invites us to see that the oppression and subjugation of this wild world's resources results and is of the same cloth as the oppression and subjugation of its people. What McIntosh offers here is not a blueprint or plan for how to make this work (at least not directly) -though it is evident throughout the text that much of his academic work focuses on precisely this and that he has thought this through in terms of its pragmatism - but a fresh invitation to see the world in its beauty and possibility and claim this as deeply revelatory of the meaning of the world, not merely as incidental moments ultimately to be drawn under the slow steam-roller of time. McIntosh testifies in his own bardic way that what we do matters and how we do it matters and change is possible.
I have already ordered another of his books.
Personally, I am a fan of the perennial wisdom tradition and so do not find too problematic the way McIntosh will quote theologian Walter Wink alongside Gaelic poets and historians. This winding narrative is invitational as much as descriptive and so invites the reader to a metaphorical fire-place to hear the wisdom gleaned from McIntosh's experience in community and social activism. At the heart of his accounts I find a compassion not only for the community he advocated and belonged to but also the 'Keith Schellenbergs' or lairds, who were in some respects the "enemy". This compassion arises through McIntosh's leaning on Walter Wink's (in my view, brilliant) reading of the 'Domination System' which can be understood not as the evil of a human being itself but the Spirit (interiority) of oppression that the system generates as an emergent property of organisations structured around greed. In that sense, what is to be tackled in terms of corporate power is these Powers that remain masked and which present themselves as ideological givens rather than contingent arrangements based upon the choices of people throughout history. As such, there is great hope in challenging these dominant narratives despite the loaded dice.
McIntosh delineates three 'modes' of humanity in taking on these powers which, in the chapter "The Womanhood of God", are described as logos, mythos and eros. Crudely speaking, logos is the modality of truth which can be characterised by rationality and proceeds along a course worked out through the intellect. Mythos, however, rather than being an irrational story believed for moral purpose, is the narrative structure which couches and therefore renders the work of logos meaningful. Although McIntosh does not spend much time arguing this point, within this picture there is an implicit critique of the possibility of logos to underpin our deepest convictions, as though the truths we live by can simply be formed by pinning together our various rational conclusions - an assumption very much active in modern thought. Instead, mythos is that which we are caught up in. Ultimately, the two are both necessarily and can operate in complementarity:
"The rational mind, if bereft of the soul's touchstone of beauty that poetry [in the broadest sense] offers, may come to know the world with great precision, but at the cost of fragmentation... By contrast, however if the poetic mind is stripped of logos, it will loses its co-ordinates. It will lose its sense of proportion, of the ratio, of order - and so readily fall prey to fanaticism, demagoguery, neurotic nostalgia and chaos." (p, 208)
Finally, eros can be understood as that more primal energy which animates our course along the lines of mythos and logos. This part particularly stood out to me as it seemed to be a reflection upon the work and methodology of Soil and Soul as a whole. It is a framework that can provide new ways to conceive of our place in the world and a sense of hope and purpose that is all too often lost in the West by way of distraction, mistrust, addiction and blame. In short, this book renewed my hope.
I haven't yet mentioned, though it is so central (and evident in the title) that McIntosh's work centres around our relationship to the soil and the earth and therefore asserts that the work of community regeneration is coincidental with a right relationship with the earth which is moreover, its proper foundation. Therefore, McIntosh invites us to see that the oppression and subjugation of this wild world's resources results and is of the same cloth as the oppression and subjugation of its people. What McIntosh offers here is not a blueprint or plan for how to make this work (at least not directly) -though it is evident throughout the text that much of his academic work focuses on precisely this and that he has thought this through in terms of its pragmatism - but a fresh invitation to see the world in its beauty and possibility and claim this as deeply revelatory of the meaning of the world, not merely as incidental moments ultimately to be drawn under the slow steam-roller of time. McIntosh testifies in his own bardic way that what we do matters and how we do it matters and change is possible.
I have already ordered another of his books.
March 6, 2016
Curiously, one of the quotes on the front cover of my copy of this book proclaims that the work is 'No Logo in fair isle jumper', which is a pretty apt description for anyone who has read 'No Logo' by Naomi Klein. In actuality, I find that Alastair McIntosh is a bit like a cross between Naomi Klein and George Monbiot (who, perchance, wrote the foreword for this book). McIntosh imbues the case studies of forced corporate dispossession that Naomi Klein talked about in 'No Logo' (and also a lot of the ecology that she espoused in 'This Changes Everything') and does it with the poetry and spirituality of Monbiot. Oddly enough, I had actually read both 'No Logo' and 'Feral' (by Monbiot) earlier in the year, with this work and Klein's work being the most coherent and convincing.
Unlike Naomi Klein's wide ranging case studies, Alastair McIntosh sticks with a detailed example that he has been a part and a driving force of. McIntosh sets the context of landownership in Scotland, where a ridiculous amount of it is concentrated in a very small number of wealthy (and often absentee) landowners. His own case, on the Isle of Eigg is an example of how a community can take on both a laird who manipulated that native population, and the extraction industry in the face of increasing corporate deregulation.
Spirituality can be a very difficult aspect to write into a book without alienating your atheist and agnostic (like myself) readership. It can be hard to write it in without sounding like you're preaching, or being evangelical; how do you relate it to a potentially multi-faith group of readers when this isn't a Christian work? The answer is that spiritual belief is key in this work, and adds an extra dimension. It illustrates the reverence that McIntosh holds for the land, and how incompatible such avaricious and profligate land ownership is to this belief. Whilst the spirituality is grounded in flexible Christian theology (tinged with hints of Celtic and Native American mysticism), McIntosh is at pains to express that, whatever you believe, the essence of spirituality is applicable to all. He extols the sacred feminine, and insists that we see the female sides of both Jesus and God - his concepts of ecofeminism as related to spirituality and the land appeal to me greatly.
This is a greatly inspiring work. I'm not a Christian in any sense of the word, nor do I have any defined beliefs on the spirituality behind the land - however I feel like it gives the reader a new outlook on traditional Western, non-Indigenous views on land ownership. Communality seems like something to extol, and whatever force lies behind nature should be revered and respected. It makes me think that maybe I should look into my own spirituality a little bit more, and see the more personable side of the land I walk on. But that's just the kind of introspection that it's brought up in me.
If you're coming from Klein's work, you might find this a bit too poetic, but give it a go; McIntosh holds much of the same sentiment as she does. It tends to be far more optimistic than Klein (which is no criticism of her, as she writes in the hope to galvanise worthy changes to be made) For anyone who has wanted to reconnect with the intangible forces of nature, or simply wants the satisfaction of reading about the defeat of corporations and the gentry, this is the book for you. I'm sure it has a more general appeal than this, but I'll let that be determined by anyone who happens to stumble across this. My testament is that it is a wonderful, life affirming, buoyant and poignant book.
Unlike Naomi Klein's wide ranging case studies, Alastair McIntosh sticks with a detailed example that he has been a part and a driving force of. McIntosh sets the context of landownership in Scotland, where a ridiculous amount of it is concentrated in a very small number of wealthy (and often absentee) landowners. His own case, on the Isle of Eigg is an example of how a community can take on both a laird who manipulated that native population, and the extraction industry in the face of increasing corporate deregulation.
Spirituality can be a very difficult aspect to write into a book without alienating your atheist and agnostic (like myself) readership. It can be hard to write it in without sounding like you're preaching, or being evangelical; how do you relate it to a potentially multi-faith group of readers when this isn't a Christian work? The answer is that spiritual belief is key in this work, and adds an extra dimension. It illustrates the reverence that McIntosh holds for the land, and how incompatible such avaricious and profligate land ownership is to this belief. Whilst the spirituality is grounded in flexible Christian theology (tinged with hints of Celtic and Native American mysticism), McIntosh is at pains to express that, whatever you believe, the essence of spirituality is applicable to all. He extols the sacred feminine, and insists that we see the female sides of both Jesus and God - his concepts of ecofeminism as related to spirituality and the land appeal to me greatly.
This is a greatly inspiring work. I'm not a Christian in any sense of the word, nor do I have any defined beliefs on the spirituality behind the land - however I feel like it gives the reader a new outlook on traditional Western, non-Indigenous views on land ownership. Communality seems like something to extol, and whatever force lies behind nature should be revered and respected. It makes me think that maybe I should look into my own spirituality a little bit more, and see the more personable side of the land I walk on. But that's just the kind of introspection that it's brought up in me.
If you're coming from Klein's work, you might find this a bit too poetic, but give it a go; McIntosh holds much of the same sentiment as she does. It tends to be far more optimistic than Klein (which is no criticism of her, as she writes in the hope to galvanise worthy changes to be made) For anyone who has wanted to reconnect with the intangible forces of nature, or simply wants the satisfaction of reading about the defeat of corporations and the gentry, this is the book for you. I'm sure it has a more general appeal than this, but I'll let that be determined by anyone who happens to stumble across this. My testament is that it is a wonderful, life affirming, buoyant and poignant book.
May 25, 2016
What a great book! The author tells the story of two environmental protection movements in the Hebrides in the 1990s. In one project, a group of crofters challenges the abusive practices of their landlord, and in another, a diverse coalition successfully halts efforts to site a super quarry on the Isle of Harris. Both projects are successful, in part because they have cooperation and inspiration from a group of like-minded Native Americans in Nova Scotia. Mcintosh traces centuries of Scottish history to reconstruct the economics and the politics that gave rise to feudalism and explain its strange persistence into the waning decades of the twentieth century. Part of that story includes the forced eviction of some 18th century tenants who were displaced to Nova Scotia, and who were welcomed and sheltered by the Mikmaq tribe. McIntosh explains how he reached out to the tribe and sought solidarity in their contemporary struggles over land tenure and ecological protection. He also relates how he and some academic partners established the Isle of Eigg Trust. This story is really amazing, because it involves empowering a community of crofters who have been abused by their feudal landlords for seven generations. Watching them make the transition from being fearful of speaking out against their modern-day laird to taking full ownership of the Trust and its activities--and ultimately succeeding in their campaign to buy the laird out and restore the island to community ownership--is really inspiring.
The book (and indeed the mobilization that it describes) rests solidly on religious ideas from Celtic paganism and the Judeo-Christian tradition. Parts of the book are heavy sledding and a bit repetitive, but McIntosh explains all of the religious and theological linkages between notions of land, community, and faith (soil, society, and soul). So much contemporary scholarship on social movements draws on theories of rational choice, examining the strategic and tactical motivations of the actors. A more recent current of social movement scholarship has started to look at the role of emotions in identity formation--McInosh's work falls squarely into that camp, although he traces those ideas back centuries.
The book is laid out in two parts; the first book recounts Scottish history and some of that theology, and then the second part of the book is about the two campaigns from the 90s. A lot of the theology is in discrete chapters, so you could skim or skip those if you just want to get the basics of the history and the campaign. But the second part, about them winning the campaign is really gripping stuff, especially when Chief Stone Eagle travels to Scotland to tour the Hebrides. It's there that we really see the emotional work of social movement organizing in action.
The book (and indeed the mobilization that it describes) rests solidly on religious ideas from Celtic paganism and the Judeo-Christian tradition. Parts of the book are heavy sledding and a bit repetitive, but McIntosh explains all of the religious and theological linkages between notions of land, community, and faith (soil, society, and soul). So much contemporary scholarship on social movements draws on theories of rational choice, examining the strategic and tactical motivations of the actors. A more recent current of social movement scholarship has started to look at the role of emotions in identity formation--McInosh's work falls squarely into that camp, although he traces those ideas back centuries.
The book is laid out in two parts; the first book recounts Scottish history and some of that theology, and then the second part of the book is about the two campaigns from the 90s. A lot of the theology is in discrete chapters, so you could skim or skip those if you just want to get the basics of the history and the campaign. But the second part, about them winning the campaign is really gripping stuff, especially when Chief Stone Eagle travels to Scotland to tour the Hebrides. It's there that we really see the emotional work of social movement organizing in action.
September 25, 2011
Inspiring, infuriating, and in many ways, heart-rending. An account of two major power clashes in recent Scottish history, which have led to the birth of the Land Rights Reform Movement and may ultimately change the way relationships between local people and corporate bodies are mitigated.
Alastair frequently dips into the well of esoterica (and occasionally fades into the Mystic) but it makes for an interesting, lively read all the way through, and lends insight as to the scope of what is at stake in the battle to save our ecology, our cultures, our sense of belonging to this world and our purpose in it.
The history of colonization (of both land and minds) is explored in relation to the ongoing extraction of natural resources by multinational corporations and national governments, as well as victim blaming and the oppressive influences of politics and religion.
A truly human story, human failings and all.
It inspired me to travel to Harris and climb Mount Roineabhal, whose reprieve from being reduced to a 200-metre-deep hole in order to supply southern Britain with road gravel is described herein. It was a great climb, and I had my first close up view of a White Tailed Eagle at the summit, a powerful (and exceptionally relevant) moment I will never forget.
Alastair frequently dips into the well of esoterica (and occasionally fades into the Mystic) but it makes for an interesting, lively read all the way through, and lends insight as to the scope of what is at stake in the battle to save our ecology, our cultures, our sense of belonging to this world and our purpose in it.
The history of colonization (of both land and minds) is explored in relation to the ongoing extraction of natural resources by multinational corporations and national governments, as well as victim blaming and the oppressive influences of politics and religion.
A truly human story, human failings and all.
It inspired me to travel to Harris and climb Mount Roineabhal, whose reprieve from being reduced to a 200-metre-deep hole in order to supply southern Britain with road gravel is described herein. It was a great climb, and I had my first close up view of a White Tailed Eagle at the summit, a powerful (and exceptionally relevant) moment I will never forget.
March 7, 2009
Everything else has to take second place for a while. A chance meeting with someone, and I ordered and got this from amazon in the last week. "About' the successful campaign against vested interests and corporatism to secure the Scottish island of Eigg for a community, what I have read so far just wants to me to keep on going for 384 pages. It's erudite and wild in its references but is essentially 'heart politics'; the first chapter will put you straight on this. Not an autobiography but that best of history which radiates from a real narrator who is there, a people, a place. Part anthology, part eye opener to history and mythology, written with love, this promises to be the celebration I have looked for which is reached by dismissing the sentimental and consumerist marketing strategies of the 'new age' ondustries. I'm only on page 50 at the time of writing, but you kind of know ealy from the voice in the writing whether you are being called to listen.
March 28, 2019
I came across Alastair Macintosh on a podcast I listened to recently and remembered that this book was sitting unread on a shelf. Raised on the Isle of Lewis, the author grew up to teach human ecology to postgraduates and to work on land rights in south east Asia and elsewhere. This enabled him to become involved in the struggle of the people of Eigg to buy their own island, which made a huge impact on how people think about land ownership in Scotland. He also successfully campaigned against the superquarrying of a mountain on Harris for roadstone, which would have resulted in 'the biggest hole in the world' where previously a mountain had stood. These stories are told in this book, but interwoven with history, philosophy, theology and memoir, themes layering thickly, sometimes several on a single page. Rich and dense, satisfying and inspiring.
August 15, 2017
I saw this book as having 3 inter-twined strands.
One was the facts about the movement to rid Eigg of its Laird and take it into community ownership and also to stop a super-quarry on Harris.
The second was social-political-environmental commentary about how things are and how they could be better if there was a focus on community and if we were connected to the land that we inhabited.
These two parts I found interesting and there was plenty sections that I read out to Ann as I agreed whole-heartedly to what was being suggested.
The third strand was a spiritual analysis of events which I did not really relate to. However, it was obviously part of the author's journey and maybe the problem was that is was a bit over my head!
One was the facts about the movement to rid Eigg of its Laird and take it into community ownership and also to stop a super-quarry on Harris.
The second was social-political-environmental commentary about how things are and how they could be better if there was a focus on community and if we were connected to the land that we inhabited.
These two parts I found interesting and there was plenty sections that I read out to Ann as I agreed whole-heartedly to what was being suggested.
The third strand was a spiritual analysis of events which I did not really relate to. However, it was obviously part of the author's journey and maybe the problem was that is was a bit over my head!
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