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Wendell Berry 207

Wendell Berry Risks Arrest in Sit-In

A group of Kentuckians are protesting mountaintop removal.
Mark T. Mitchell
February 11, 2011

Agriculture vs. Agribusiness

A visit to a CAFO makes it clear that to have sustainable agriculture, you have to make sustainable the lives and livelihoods of the people who do the work.
February 10, 2011

Against Cremation

One way to celebrate a culture of life is to cultivate our bodies in death.
December 17, 2010

The Gift of Good Work

What if every day was given to rest, eating, and relaxation?
Mark T. Mitchell
November 23, 2010

Wendell Berry and the Great Economy

Economics has become a totalizing system claiming the power to explain all things. It is as much a religious system—by another name—as is Berry's Great Economy.
August 5, 2010

Independence Day Eve

Whenever I hear someone claim that “our enemies hate us for our freedom,” I think first of the USS Vincennes and July 3rd, 1988. Twenty-two years ago today, Vincennes was…
July 3, 2010

More On Berry vs. UKY

Wendell Berry explains his break with the University of Kentucky.
Patrick Deneen
June 25, 2010

Contracepting Cultural Memory

R.J. Snell writes, "Contraception is already so normalized in our society that its use is presumed for both married and unmarried alike; in fact, so normalized is contraception that its…

Thoughts on Teaching Wendell Berry

Teaching Wendell Berry to students today isn't a thankless task, but the victories are small and far between (which, one might say, is all the best victories always are).
April 29, 2010

Tom Coburn Vilified

Coburn calls Nancy Pelosi a "nice lady" and earns the ire of conservatives.
Mark T. Mitchell
April 14, 2010

The Homeless Modern

The disposition that characterizes the modern mind--a disposition that favors as its ideal a skeptical “view from nowhere,”--serves to undermine the very elements that make community possible.
Mark T. Mitchell
April 13, 2010

Beyond Capitalism and Socialism: Rebuilding an American Economy Focused on Family and Community

In light of the the economic crisis - and the bright light it sheds on the failings of modern capitalism - there is a need to reconsider older arguments of…
March 8, 2010

Exploiting Antiquities

To him, the created world is merely “resources” and fodder for “job creation.”

The Roots of Originality

It is only our own town or neighborhood that is specific enough, and someday knowable enough, to enable a capable writer's imagination to imagine it clear and whole.
Katherine Dalton
January 14, 2010

Fifty Dollar Tomato

Hillsdale, MI. When I first thought about writing this it was the “Ten Dollar Tomato.”  But historians are more or less required to tell the truth, and it now costs…
December 10, 2009

The Stories We Tell…

Philadelphia, PA. If you have read just one of Wendell Berry’s novels or short stories, then you have glimpsed this Kentucky farmer’s love for family, place, and story.   In a contemplative…

The Final Word On Cell Phones

Rock Island, IL In the early days of FPR, and then again more recently, I was impertinent enough to write disparaging remarks about cell phones, which as everyone knows are…
Jason Peters
October 21, 2009

Dirt, Dollars, and Devices

Holland, MI. I confess: I hate farms. I hate everything about them. I hate the malodorous smells that take days to wash off. I hate the all-pervasive dirt which invades…
Jeff Polet
October 15, 2009

A Long, Long Row

“Hontar:  We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus. Altamirano: No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world. Thus have I made it.” From The…
September 3, 2009

The Reluctant Southerner: Reflections on Home and History

Moorpark, CA.  In October of 1997 I attended the Southern Historical Association’s convention in Atlanta because I wanted to hear Paul Conkin’s presidential address, “Hot, Humid, and Sad.”  What I…

“On the Grid”: When Electricity (and Other Things) Came to the Countryside

“Come in and look,” Quintín urged me, as he disappeared with a shuffle through the low doorway in his adobe house.  I got up from the wooden bench on which…
July 31, 2009

If Cooking Slowly and Growing Organically are In, Why Is Rural Ministry Out?

Any self-respecting Christian should come down a few rungs on his ladder of self-esteem after reading Wendell Berry on the all-too-common view of organized churches toward farms, farmers, and rural…
July 21, 2009

Will Wendell Be Jailed?

Claremont, CA. Wendell Berry, writer and farmer and hero to the people, might move from the farmhouse to the big house. Speaking at one of the USDA's National Identification System…

Community

JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.  "Community" is a recurring word and theme on this stoop, but it's invocation can come in many undesirable forms: as a talisman against perceived ills; as a marketing device appealing…
May 29, 2009