Decentralism: Where it Came From - Where is it Going?

by Mildred J. Loomis

Today it is likely that more people than ever before are consciously engaged in some kind of decentralist venture which expresses not merely rebellion against authoritarianism, but also faith in the possibility of a new kind of society. Each crises in the human situation has produced its decentralist movements in which men and women have turned away from the nightmares of megapolitics to the radical realities of human relationships. Often mistakenly identified as radical, decentralism is in fact based on many traditional values. With Loomis' great historical understanding, this invaluable book provides indispensable grounding for today's activists. In it she documents the ideas and experiments of some of the early decentralists--among which include Arthur Morgan, Henry George, Benjamin Tucker, Paul Goodman, Ralph Borsodi. They all shared a common belief in restoring community self-reliance and bringing economic and social activities back to a more human scale. Friend of cooperation, of self-sufficiency, of the household economy, of the small community, their early experiments played a pivotal role in introducing and supporting: organic agriculture, consumer rights, and cooperatives and worker-owned businesses. Actively engaged in community land trust, the ecological use of resources, alternative education, consensus decision making, non-exploitive banking, and alternative currency, these earlier movements saw a resurgence of neighbourhood revival, community economic reconstruction, co-ops, and land trusts--many of which continue to operate successfully today. 

198 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book thinking I was getting a book about a history of an idea, decentralism. What I actually got was one person's memoir of the different people she encountered who were part of the decentralist movement. Between the pages of reconstructed conversations, unsubstantiated generalization, and lack of footnotes for specific claims, really, this book was barely worth my time. When in the first few pages she distills Adam Smith's _Wealth of Nations_ into a single sentence, oversimplifying, and fails to cite to a section of Smith's work or a secondary source making that claim, my hopes for the book sank. When Loomis wrote about the ideas of the movement, I was engaged. When she talked about how this or that particular person visited The School of Living (which was the anchoring place of her story) and then started their own version somewhere else, I could not care less. Very disappointing.

The only chapter that was engaging was her survey of the individualist anarchists of the nineteenth century. I thought I was getting more of that and I was wrong. Really not worth your time unless you want the nitty gritty details of the influence of The School of Living on decentralism.