A delightful anthology of classical Greek and Roman writings celebrating country living—ranging from a philosophy of compost to hymns to the gods of agriculture Whether you farm or garden, live in ...the country or long to move there, or simply enjoy an occasional rural retreat, you will be delighted by this cornucopia of writings about living and working on the land, harvested from the fertile fields of ancient Greek and Roman literature. An inspiring antidote to the digital age, How to Be a Farmer evokes the beauty and bounty of nature with a rich mixture of philosophy, practical advice, history, and humor. Together, these timeless reflections on what the Greeks called boukolika and the Romans res rusticae provide an entertaining and enlightening guide to a more meaningful and sustainable way of life.In fresh translations by classicist and farmer M. D. Usher, with the original texts on facing pages, Hesiod praises the dignity of labor; Plato describes the rustic simplicity of his ideal republic; Varro dedicates a farming manual to his wife, Fundania ("Mrs. Farmer"); and Vergil idealizes farmers as residents of the Golden Age. In other selections, Horace extols the joys of simple living at his cherished country farm; Pliny the Elder explains why all culture stems from agriculture; Columella praises donkeys and tells how to choose a ram or a dog; Musonius Rufus argues that farming is the best livelihood for a philosopher; and there is much more.Proof that farming is ultimately a state of mind we should all cultivate, How to Be a Farmer will charm anyone who loves nature or its fruits.
Festival places Gibson, Chris; Connell, John
2011., 2011, 2011-01-25, Letnik:
27
eBook
Festivals have burgeoned in rural areas, revitalising old traditions and inventing new reasons to celebrate. How do festivals contribute to tourism, community and a rural sense of belonging? What are ...their cultural, environmental and economic dimensions? This book features contributions from researchers who answer such questions.
Several stark premises have long prevailed in our approach to Russian history. It was commonly assumed that Russia had always labored under a highly centralized and autocratic imperial state. The ...responsibility for this lamentable state of affairs was ultimately assigned to the profoundly agrarian character of Russian society. The countryside, home to the overwhelming majority of the nation's population, was considered a harsh world of cruel landowners and ignorant peasants, and a strong hand was required for such a crude society.A number of significant conclusions flowed from this understanding. Deep and abiding social divisions obstructed the evolution of modernity, as experienced "naturally" in other parts of Europe, so there was no Renaissance or Reformation; merely a derivative Enlightenment; and only a distorted capitalism. And since only despotism could contain these volatile social forces, it followed that the 1917 Revolution was an inevitable explosion resulting from these intolerable contradictions-and so too were the blood-soaked realities of the Soviet regime that came after. In short, the sheer immensity of its provincial backwardness could explain almost everything negative about the course of Russian history.This book undermines these preconceptions. Through her close study of the province of Nizhnii Novgorod in the nineteenth century, Catherine Evtuhov demonstrates how nearly everything we thought we knew about the dynamics of Russiansociety was wrong. Instead of peasants ground down by poverty and ignorance, we find skilled farmers, talented artisans and craftsmen, and enterprising tradespeople. Instead of an exclusively centrally administered state, we discover effective and participatory local government. Instead of pervasive ignorance, we are shown a lively cultural scene and an active middle class. Instead of a defining Russian exceptionalism, we find a world recognizable to any historian of nineteenth-century Europe.Drawing on a wide range of Russian social, environmental, economic, cultural, and intellectual history, and synthesizing it with deep archival research of the Nizhnii Novgorod province, Evtuhov overturns a simplistic view of the Russian past. Rooted in, but going well beyond, provincial affairs, her book challenges us with an entirely new perspective on Russia's historical trajectory.
Alun Howkins' panoramic survey is a social history of rural England and Wales in the twentieth century. He examines the impact of the First World War, the role of agriculture throughout the century, ...and the expectations of the countryside that modern urban people harbour. Howkins analyzes the role of rural England as a place for work as well as leisure, and the problems caused by these often conflicting roles. This overview will be welcomed by anyone interested in agricultural and social history, historical geographers, and all those interested in rural affairs.
This paper examines whether U.S. monetary policy has different effects on young and old countries. I first empirically show that a contractionary U.S. monetary policy shock brings about a smaller ...fall in output and a greater rise in net exports in old countries using vector autoregressions (VARs), and that the shock leads to a larger fall in consumption and a smaller decrease in investment in old countries using the local projection method. I then construct a three‐country life‐cycle model including the U.S., a young country, and an old country. Consistent with the empirical analyses, the simulation results of the model show that a contractionary U.S. monetary policy shock has weaker effects on output in the old country than in the young country. In response to the shock, despite a larger fall in consumption in the old country, investment there decreases by less and net exports rise by more, which enables output in the old country to decline by less. The stronger incentives to save in the old country, resulting from the longer life expectancy and hence the longer retirement period, play a key role in generating these results.
“Another fine, reflective, anecdotal look at rural Texas." —New Yorker “Graves writes eloquently about a countryman’s concerns. There's not a false note in the book." —Boston Globe “Like the ...unmortared stone fences of Graves’s native hill country, From a Limestone Ledge is constructed of bits and pieces never designed to fit together, yet made to achieve a unity that is more enduring than the sum of its individual parts by the hands of a master craftsman." —Southwestern Historical Quarterly “The beauty of his work endures, and there is a greater pride in Texans’ hearts for their home, I think, than there would be if he hadn’t written the books he did." —Rick Bass, Garden & Gun “In describing the particulars of his surroundings, Graves often was describing the world in microcosm and the place and plight of humankind in it." —Bryan Woolley, Dallas Morning News
This book is the first comprehensive treatment of the 'small politics' of rural communities in the Late Roman world. It places the diverse fates of those communities within a generalized model for ...exploring rural social systems. Fundamentally, social interactions in rural contexts in the period revolved around the desire of individual households to insure themselves against catastrophic subsistence failure and the need of the communities in which they lived to manage the attendant social tensions, inequalities and conflicts. A focus upon the politics of reputation in those communities provides a striking contrast to the picture painted by the legislation and the writings of Rome's literate elite: when viewed from the point of view of the peasantry, issues such as the Christianization of the countryside, the emergence of new types of patronage relations, and the effects of the new system of taxation upon rural social structures take on a different aspect.
How did people living on the early American frontier discover and then become a part of the market economy? How do their purchases and their choices revise our understanding of the market revolution ...and the emerging consumer ethos? Ann Smart Martin provides answers to these questions by examining the texture of trade on the edge of the upper Shenandoah Valley between 1760 and 1810.
Reconstructing the world of one country merchant, John Hook, Martin reveals how the acquisition of consumer goods created and validated a set of ideas about taste, fashion, and lifestyle in a particular place at a particular time. Her analysis of Hook's account ledger illuminates the everyday wants, transactions, and tensions recorded within and brings some of Hook's customers to life: a planter looking for just the right clock, a farmer in search of nails, a young woman and her friends out shopping on their own, and a slave woman choosing a looking glass.
This innovative approach melds fascinating narratives with sophisticated analysis of material culture to distill large abstract social and economic systems into intimate triangulations among merchants, customers, and objects. Martin finds that objects not only reflect culture, they are the means to create it.
At home in nature Gould, Rebecca Kneale
2005., 20050924, 2005, 2005-10-24
eBook
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.
Der Gang aufs Land Seel, Henri J
2023, 20230427, 20230420, Letnik:
19
eBook
Seit mehreren Jahren wird in einer Vielzahl von Büchern von Umzügen in ländliche Gebiete und von der Entdeckung eines neuen, unbekannten Ortes erzählt - so z.B. bei Dieter Moor, Dörte Hansen oder ...Juli Zeh. In diesen Texten entsteht »das Land« als fremdes Gegenüber einer urbanisierten Gesellschaft, über das es etwas zu lernen gibt. Henri J. Seel widmet sich dem Land als Wissensobjekt und deutet dessen Entstehen als Ergebnis eines Gefüges aus gesellschaftlichen Erzähltraditionen sowie Raum- und Wissensordnungen. Er stellt in einer Poetologie des Wissens über das Land fest, dass die Erkundung des ruralen Raums auch Ausdruck eines Deutungskampfes um »das gute Leben« ist.
