Home Economics

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 192 pages
• Published by: North Point Press June 1, 1987
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0865472750
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0865472754
• Book Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 8.6 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Novelist and poet Berry offers an eclectic group of essays on subjects ranging from economics and education to agriculture and the feminist movement. In "Six Agricultural Fallacies," for example, he argues in his typically individualistic way, that agriculture cannot be considered an industry because industry centers on machinery, which is not alive, while agriculture is a matter of living and breathing organisms. He also maintains that a factory may break down and machinery will fall into disrepair, but that soil, when properly used, will never "wear out." Elsewhere he praises the art of working by hand. Noting that he is not an authority on many of his subjects, he gives his opinions nonetheless, which help make this collection quirky and amusing.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Berry, poet, essayist, novelist, and Kentucky farmer, writes insightfully about the passing of community and farm life, the inherent value of hand labor and well-made objects, the uses of wild lands, the decadence of the university, and, especially, the sacred economic order of nature, to which human economies must necessarily be subordinate. Berry's genius for drawing profound lessons from everyday observations shines forth in these powerful essays. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Judith Eannarino, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
The first essay, "Letter to Wes Jackson", is the reason I recommend this book so highly to anyone who appreciates thoughtful, elegant essays. In this essay Berry asks the rhetorical question: is randomness a verifiable condition, or evidence of the limits of our ability to order things? He chooses the latter option, and then spins out the ramifications of that choice in terms of religion and science and the way we live with or abuse the world - all in three revelatory pages. The rest of the book, while not (to me) the powerful revelation that the first essay was, contains some of the finest, most deeply-considered writing you will find in essay form from any writer of any period. Berry is one of the best. My recommendation is to buy two copies: one to hoard, and one to loan.