The Simple Life Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture

by Shi, David E.

• ISBN13: 9780195040135
• ISBN10: 0195040139
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1986-03-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Our current less-is-more impulse may have contemporary trappings, says David E. Shi, but the underlying ideal has been around for centuries. From Puritans and Quakers to Boy Scouts and hippies, our quest for the simple life is an enduring, complex tradition in American culture. Looking across more than three centuries of want and prosperity, war and peace, Shi introduces a rich cast of practitioners and proponents of the simple life, among them Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Jane Addams, Scott and Helen Nearing, and Jimmy Carter.

Author Biography

David E. Shi is the president of Furman University, where he is also a professor of history.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 3
The Puritan Way	p. 8
The Quaker Ethic	p. 28
Republican Simplicity	p. 50
Republicanism Transformed	p. 74
Simplicity Domesticated	p. 100
Transcendental Simplicity	p. 125
Patrician Simplicity-At Bay	p. 154
Progressive Simplicity	p. 175
Prosperity, Depression, and Simplicity	p. 215
Affluence and Anxiety	p. 248
Epilogue	p. 277
Notes	p. 283
Index	p. 325
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