The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry

"Be a giver, not just a taker." Growing up, this was my father's chief advice. Berry has expanded that phrase into an entire corpus of work.This collection of essays is a powerful call for all people to reconsider the dominant cultural narratives about progress, technology, and the "good life." In the past 100 years the American dream has become extractive. It takes but never gives back. By no one in particular, we were all convinced that the "good life" is one of material abundance, individual autonomy, personal expression, and personal advancement. Without the heir or ignorance or self aggrandizement that so many conservatives wear, Berry retrieves what we've lost by reflecting upon the small communities of mid 1900's America. He presents a vision of the good life centered on good character, strong communities, rich friendship, the dignity of human labor, and the interdependence of people upon their land.If you read this entire book, and it doesn't change your life, ask Amazon from your money back.

Wendell Berry might be the most thought provoking grump you will ever read. He is also a prophet that we need to listen to carefully. There are no big or easy solutions only the persistent call to pay attention to the places we inhabit.

Wendell Berry is not a man of our time but he is most certainly a man FOR our time. Berry is old-fashioned in the best sense of that overused word, but a man whose ideas should be most fundamental to a nation who is often at sea, wandering in the wilderness and unable to find its way back home. This book is a collection of essays imbued with Berry's profound convictions concerning the significance of community, of a sense of place and belonging, and of the need for infinitely sustainable land use practices. Too often he is a voice crying in the wilderness, but his is a voice we forsake at our own peril. He is both a superb farmer and writer. He deserves a wider audience than his already substantial and devoted one.

Berry's essays are important and insightful reading, and I very highly recommend them. This is mostly an excellent collection of some of his writing, but there is quite a bit of repetition, covering the same ground a number of times in various essays. I would prefer that an "Essential" reading collection like this take greater care in editing the collection together to avoid this. That said, WB's writing is very much worth it.

Wendell Berry’s call for living with care and caring with love for the beautiful Earth and for one another is essential reading. He points to how we are injuring both earth and ourselves and gives information, knowledge, and wisdom to help us.

As a reader of Berry for over 30 years this new collection of essays brought to light amazing pieces (like the first essay, written in 1968) that I had never seen before. It is a treasure-trove of work for those who know well, and don't yet know, Berry's exceptional work in this genre. A must have for Berry fans and new readers alike!

I love his romantic poems to his wife. He also did a mini play about a couple whose ghosts visit the place where they lived and loved. Very nice.

Wonderful perspectives. Philosophical, yet accessible. Spiritual, but not preachy.

Highly recommended for your mind to chew upon...

Wendell Berry is a Kentucky farmer and poet, in his eighties. His essays voice his concerns about land use, farming and our planet's future. He is a unique American voice and should be more widely known. He restores your faith in American ideals and its future. His concerns are also ours in Britain. You must discover Wendell Berry.

Offre riflessioni non “mainstream” . In particolare fornisce all’idea della protezione e salvaguardia delle natura un approccio non ideologico ma basato sul buon senso

This a compelling collection of essays describing a world that may be slowly slipping beyond our grasp. The writing is beautiful and well worth the read regardless of your ultimate acceptance of the arguments

Think Little is just one of the essays in the collection. It's the one that I found way back in 1970 when it was written and published in the hippies companion The Whole Earth Catalog (amongst other places). I was sold on his ideas and have recently re-read it twice. Twice, because Wendell Berry's ideas about how the world is run, how agriculture is practised are as relevant today as they were when he wrote in 1970. Visionary writing can so often look misguided after half a century - this really doesn't because his views are now so evidently correct - well to me, and certainly to a great many others. I recommend that if you are interested, you should start by reading Think Little and consider it in view even of the recent Extinction Rebellion movement. Here is a man with a view which shows how things might have been and how they could be. It makes for inspiring and interesting, educational reading, even though, to my mind, there is faint hope of it coming to pass - but every little helps. His words and this work must be passed on.