Citizenship Papers Essays

by Berry, Wendell

• ISBN13: 9781593760373
• ISBN10: 159376037X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-18
• Publisher: Counterpoint

Summary

Citizenship papers, n 1. Materials prepared for presentation to authorities when making an application for citizenship. 2. Documents presented as proof of citizenship.

There are those in America today who seem to feel we must audition for our citizenship, with "Patriot" offered as the badge for those found narrowly worthy. Let this book stand as Wendell Berry’s application, for he is one of those faithful, devoted critics envisioned by the Founding Fathers to be the life’s blood and very future of the nation they imagined. Adams, Jefferson and Madison would have found great clarity in his prose and great hope in his vision. And today’s readers will be moved and encouraged by his anger and his refusal to surrender in the face of desperate odds. Books get written for all sorts of reasons, and this book was written out of necessity.

Citizenship Papers collects nineteen new essays, from celebrations of exemplary lives to critiques of American life, including "A Citizen’s Response [to the new National Security Strategy]"—a ringing call of caution to a nation standing on the brink of global catastrophe.

Author Biography

Wendell Berry is a former professor of English at the University of Kentucky.

Table of Contents

A Citizen's Response	1	(16)
Thoughts in the Presence of Fear	17	(6)
The Failure of War	23	(10)
Going to Work	33	(10)
In Distrust of Movements	43	(10)
Twelve Paragraphs on Biotechnology	53	(4)
Let the Farm Judge	57	(6)
The Total Economy	63	(14)
A Long Job, Too Late to Quit	77	(8)
Two Minds	85	(22)
The Prejudice Against Country People	107	(6)
The Whole Horse	113	(14)
Stupidity in Concentration	127	(8)
Watershed and Commonwealth	135	(8)
The Agrarian Standard	143	(10)
Still Standing	153	(12)
Conservationist and Agrarian	165	(10)
Tuscany	175	(6)
Is Life a Miracle?	181