Today
it is likely that more people than ever before are
consciously engaged in some kind of decentralist
venture which expresses not merely rebellion against
authoritarianism, but also faith in the possibility
of a new kind of society. Each crises in the human
situation has produced its decentralist movements in
which men and women have turned away from the
nightmares of megapolitics to the radical realities
of human relationships. Often mistakenly identified
as radical, decentralism is in fact based on many
traditional values.
With
Loomis' great historical understanding, this
invaluable book provides indispensable grounding for
today's activists. In it she documents the ideas and
experiments of some of the early decentralists--among
which include Arthur Morgan, Henry George, Benjamin
Tucker, Paul Goodman, Ralph Borsodi. They all shared
a common belief in restoring community self-reliance
and bringing economic and social activities back to a
more human scale. Friend of cooperation, of
self-sufficiency, of the household economy, of the
small community, their early experiments played a
pivotal role in introducing and supporting: organic
agriculture, consumer rights, and cooperatives and
worker-owned businesses. Actively engaged in
community land trust, the ecological use of
resources, alternative education, consensus decision
making, non-exploitive banking, and alternative
currency, these earlier movements saw a resurgence of
neighbourhood revival, community economic
reconstruction, co-ops, and land trusts--many of
which continue to operate successfully today.
Table of Contents
Referred
to as the "grandmother of the
counter-culture" Mildred J. Loomis (1905-2000),
author, educator, and social activist, taught at the
Borsodi School of Living in New York state. Later,
when she moved to Ohio--where she lived her
convictions for more than half a century--she
continued with conferences, workshops, and seminars,
at her home, Lane's End Homestead, which became an
outpost of the eastern School of Living. There, as
well, she established and published The Interpreter,
a newsletter which "interpreted current events
from the view point of decentralization."
224
pages, 6x9, photographs, illustrations, index
Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-248-4 $19.99
Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-249-2 $48.99
Cultural Studies
February
2005
