Grounded Vision

In this dense yet provocative work, Major (Hillyer College, Univ. of Hartford) explores the place of new agrarianism among other, more established critical points of view within the academy. In doing so, he attempts to bring form and identity to new agrarian thought. After closely describing its formative antecedents, Major discusses both the differences and common ground between agrarianism and postmodern thought, ecocriticism, and ecofeminism. In subsequent chapters on work and pleasure and on resistance, which draw from such agrarian figures as Wendell Berry and Lawrence Buell, Major articulates in a kinetic way local connectedness and work consciousness reminiscent of the stark concrete tone of Howard Kohn's The Last Farmer (1988). Consistent with an agrarian ethic, part of Major's approach is conciliatory, noting, for example, a shared understanding of contemporary culture with postmodernism, and an implied alliance with ecofeminism's complaint against society's imperialistic attempts at the domination of nature. While the dynamics between Major's formulation of new agrarianism and other critical constructs often present contrasts, his refreshing personal postscript greatly strengthens his view of new agrarianism as a substantive approach to critical thought. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.
--CHOICE

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"With Grounded Vision, William H. Major puts [Wendell] Berry's ideas (and those of fellow New Agrarians like Wes Jackson and Gene Logsdon) into dialogue with various critical traditions in the humanities. At the same time, Major considers the question of why academia has been slow to embrace new agrarianism, even as so many other-isms have come and gone like the seasons. . . . Major's analysis of Berry's writings in Grounded Vision is patient and meticulous. . . . Major acknowledges in his preface to Grounded Vision that most New Agrarians frankly have little patience for high-flown academic discourse. But, after all, it is a theory of land management that says fields should be planted from fencerow to fencerow, and a theory of economics that says exporting to a world market counts for more than feeding one's family. Major understands that theory matters for rural America, now more than ever. To theorize is to clarify how we want to structure the ways we eat and live."--Daily Yonder