At home in nature : modern homesteading and spiritual practice in America / Rebecca Kneale Gould.

ISBN:

9780520937864

9781423717317

Title:

At home in nature : modern homesteading and spiritual practice in America / Rebecca Kneale Gould.

Author:

Gould, Rebecca Kneale, 1963-

Personal Author:

Gould, Rebecca Kneale, 1963-

Publication Information:

Physical Description:

1 online resource (1 volume)

Contents:

List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; A Homesteading Time Line; Introduction; 1. Conversion; 2. Getting (Not Too) Close to Nature; 3. Homemade Ritual; Interlude: Interpreting Ambivalence: Homesteading as Spiritual and Cultural Work; 4. The Reenchantment of the Farm: John Burroughs Goes Back to the Land; 5. Scott Nearing and the Social Gospel of Agriculture; 6. Ambivalent Legacies I: The Dynamics of Engagement and Retreat; 7. Ambivalent Legacies II: Gender, Class, Nature, and Religion; Appendix: Of Hoes and Huckleberries: A Note on Method; Notes; Selected Bibliography.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Subject Term:

Country life -- Religious aspects.

Nature -- Religious aspects.

Spirituality -- United States.

Country life -- United States.

Nature and civilization -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Religious life and customs.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2005

Publication Information:

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
306.0973 22	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Motivated variously by the desire to reject consumerism, to live closer to the earth, to embrace voluntary simplicity, or to discover a more spiritual path, homesteaders have made the radical decision to go "back to the land," rejecting modern culture and amenities to live self-sufficiently and in harmony with nature. Drawing from vivid firsthand accounts as well as from rich historical material, this gracefully written study of homesteading in America from the late nineteenth century to the present examines the lives and beliefs of those who have ascribed to the homesteading philosophy, placing their experiences within the broader context of the changing meanings of nature and religion in modern American culture.

Rebecca Kneale Gould investigates the lives of famous figures such as Henry David Thoreau, John Burroughs, Ralph Borsodi, Wendell Berry, and Helen and Scott Nearing, and she presents penetrating interviews with many contemporary homesteaders. She also considers homesteading as a form of dissent from consumer culture, as a departure from traditional religious life, and as a practice of environmental ethics.

Author Notes

Gould Rebecca Kneale :

Rebecca Kneale Gould is Associate Professor of Religion and Affiliate in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

Gould (Middlebury College) presents a movingly written analysis of homesteading, a distinctive lifestyle that rejects consumerism, industrialism, and individualism while embracing simplicity, self-sufficiency, and harmony with nature. With poetic sensitivity to the lived context of this lifestyle and its philosophical ideals, the book successfully combines an intellectual and cultural history of homesteading with an ethnographic study of how it is being realized today. Interestingly, the author frames her analysis as a study of "lived religion," an approach that accentuates religious dynamics within everyday life and articulates the fluidity and ambiguity of the sacred wherever it is found. Homesteading is not a religion, but homesteaders consistently construct nature to be "sacred" and, more importantly, authoritative for structuring daily life. Homesteaders ritualize simple living, rearranging patterns of work and leisure to achieve a highly engaging sense of the sacred. Testimonies of personal transformation show how homesteading is a form of spiritual discipline; homesteaders voluntarily choose certain constraints that are experienced as personally freeing, spiritually renewing, and ethically demanding in the face of mainstream American culture. In short, the book provides an intriguing account of a countercultural movement that achieves both spiritual regeneration and cultural dissent. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. G. Marti Davidson College