What Are People For?

In the twenty-two essays collected here, Wendell Berry, whom “The Christian Science Monitor “called “”the “prophetic American voice of our day,” conveys a deep concern for the American economic system and the gluttonous American consumer. Berry talks to the reader as one would talk to a next-door neighbor: never preachy, he comes across as someone offering sound advice. He speaks with sadness of the greedy consumption of this country’s natural resources and the grim consequences Americans must face if current economic practices do not change drastically. In the end, these essays offer rays of hope in an otherwise bleak forecast of America’s future. Berry’s program presents convincing steps for America’s agricultural and cultural survival.

Damage —
Healing —
A remarkable man [Nate Shaw] —
Harry Caudill in the Cumberlands —
A few words in favor of Edward Abbey —
Wallace Stegner and the great community —
A poem of difficult hope —
Style and grace —
Writer and region —
The responsibility of the poet —
God and country —
A practical harmony —
An argument for diversity —
What are people for? —
Waste —
Economy and pleasure —
The pleasures of eating —
The work of local culture —
Why I am not going to buy a computer —
Feminism, the body, and the machine —
Word and flesh —
Nature as measure