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Grass Roots: The Universe of Home
This book consists of 17 essays about living with the land and the importance of reinvigorating the values of rural life. The essays include personal reflections about growing up in rural Minnesota and opinions about the state of neglected rural towns and people.
The author grew up during the 1950s on an 80-acre farm that his family rented in Rosewood Township, Minnesota. His father supplied the tools, the labor, and the seeds and kept two-thirds of the crop. His family lived off of the land--every summer his mother canned vegetables, fruits, jams, sauces, and meats for the winter. The book suggests that the industrialization of farming has marginalized rural culture and led to the impoverishment of rural towns and communities.
Bread baking provides an example of how industrialization changed everyday life. When store-bought bread replaced home baking, the family abandoned more than a habit of living--they lost a piece of rural culture that influenced various aspects of their quality of life. Since 1910, industrialization has reduced the farm workforce from about 50 percent of the U.S. population to less than 2 percent and led to the development of a handful of huge, agribusiness corporations that dominate the American agricultural economy.
The book suggests that individuals should oppose any economy that sees people as an expendable resource, that does not consider the health of communities, and that defines reductions in human labor as efficient regardless of non-pecuniary consequences. It questions what kind of values rural people are teaching their children when they sell themselves, in the name of economic development, as ideally suited to the least attractive kinds of factory work, or when they allow the rest of society to dump its toxic trash on rural land for the sake of a few jobs.
Recommendations are offered for education, agriculture, and economic development that will reinvigorate rural communities and a rural way of life.
The author grew up during the 1950s on an 80-acre farm that his family rented in Rosewood Township, Minnesota. His father supplied the tools, the labor, and the seeds and kept two-thirds of the crop. His family lived off of the land--every summer his mother canned vegetables, fruits, jams, sauces, and meats for the winter. The book suggests that the industrialization of farming has marginalized rural culture and led to the impoverishment of rural towns and communities.
Bread baking provides an example of how industrialization changed everyday life. When store-bought bread replaced home baking, the family abandoned more than a habit of living--they lost a piece of rural culture that influenced various aspects of their quality of life. Since 1910, industrialization has reduced the farm workforce from about 50 percent of the U.S. population to less than 2 percent and led to the development of a handful of huge, agribusiness corporations that dominate the American agricultural economy.
The book suggests that individuals should oppose any economy that sees people as an expendable resource, that does not consider the health of communities, and that defines reductions in human labor as efficient regardless of non-pecuniary consequences. It questions what kind of values rural people are teaching their children when they sell themselves, in the name of economic development, as ideally suited to the least attractive kinds of factory work, or when they allow the rest of society to dump its toxic trash on rural land for the sake of a few jobs.
Recommendations are offered for education, agriculture, and economic development that will reinvigorate rural communities and a rural way of life.
212 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 1995
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191 people want to read
About the author
Paul Gruchow
16 books14 followersPaul Gruchow was an American author, editor, and conservationist from Minnesota. A student of poet John Berryman, he is well known for his strong support of rural communities.
Gruchow died by suicide soon after completing the first draft of a book about depression. In memory of his literary contributions, an annual Paul Gruchow Essay Contest is conducted by Writers Rising Up to Defend Place, Natural Habitat and Wetlands through the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
Gruchow died by suicide soon after completing the first draft of a book about depression. In memory of his literary contributions, an annual Paul Gruchow Essay Contest is conducted by Writers Rising Up to Defend Place, Natural Habitat and Wetlands through the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 2, 2018
First I have to ask a question: why is Gruchow not more widely read?
"The feel of the place brought back to me evenings when i wandered as a boy and marveled at everything, at the wideness of the sky, at the leaves of corn whispering in the breeze, at the ring of creamy light along the horizon after the sun had set and the colors of day had faded, at the emerging stars. it was then, as almost never since, that everything seemed possible."
The reader becomes aware, especially in the final chapter, that Paul Gruchow has a childlike lust for observation and the natural world, however, as an adult he lusts for the lost lust of his childhood lust. He wants to see things in that simple and primal observation of his past and as an adult is trapped in a world his father would have abhorred.
This book is a series of essays on various subjects that is reflective and autobiographical, historical and biological, and a little how-to and a little psychological. There will be something of interest for every person in at least one of these essays and if not, it's simply beautiful writing.
"The feel of the place brought back to me evenings when i wandered as a boy and marveled at everything, at the wideness of the sky, at the leaves of corn whispering in the breeze, at the ring of creamy light along the horizon after the sun had set and the colors of day had faded, at the emerging stars. it was then, as almost never since, that everything seemed possible."
The reader becomes aware, especially in the final chapter, that Paul Gruchow has a childlike lust for observation and the natural world, however, as an adult he lusts for the lost lust of his childhood lust. He wants to see things in that simple and primal observation of his past and as an adult is trapped in a world his father would have abhorred.
This book is a series of essays on various subjects that is reflective and autobiographical, historical and biological, and a little how-to and a little psychological. There will be something of interest for every person in at least one of these essays and if not, it's simply beautiful writing.
July 3, 2017
What if one's life were not a commodity, not something to be bartered to the highest bidder, or made to order? What if one's life were governed by needs more fundamental than acceptance or admiration? What if one were simply to stay home and plant some manner of garden?
To plant a garden is to enter the continuum of time.
To plant a garden is to enter the continuum of time.
June 24, 2009
Probably Paul's best work.
February 6, 2017
One of the better books of essays I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with.
Thanks, Paul.
Thanks, Paul.
August 13, 2021
Gruchow is both a great writer and thinker. I'm surprised his work isn't more widely read.
January 5, 2016
Essays about growing up on an organic subsistence farm in Minnesota and what was lost when rural community succumbed to mechanization and Big Ag. This was written in 1995; since then there has indeed been a resurgence of interest in small scale agriculture and re-skilling such as the author called for.
August 14, 2008
Beautiful.
August 15, 2008
this is my favorite book ever. and i miss paul terribly. he was such a wonderful teacher.
June 22, 2011
Compelling story of who we are and where we came from.
February 17, 2013
Paul cooked the first hot meal (veggie lasagna) I ate after my first trip to the Boundary Waters in 1999. He was a great cook, great writer, and a great man.
August 11, 2016
Read for Lit 200-Rural/Regional Exper.
December 29, 2022
did i even read this
September 27, 2014
My kind of book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews