What Matters?: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781582436067)

"The reasoned and insistent exhortations of a man with a cause who, rather than mellowing with age and wisdom, continues to grow in forcefulness and vision." --Booklist

Over the years, Wendell Berry has sought to understand and confront the financial structure of modern society and the impact of developing late capitalism on American culture. There is perhaps no more demanding or important critique available to contemporary citizens than Berry's writings -- just as there is no vocabulary more given to obfuscation than that of economics as practiced by professionals and academics. Berry has called upon us to return to the basics. He has traced how the clarity of our economic approach has eroded over time, as the financial asylum was overtaken by the inmates, and citizens were turned from consumers -- entertained and distracted -- to victims, threatened by a future of despair and disillusion.

For this collection, Berry offers essays from the last twenty-five years, alongside new essays about the recent economic collapse, including "Money Versus Goods" and "Faustian Economics," treatises of great alarm and courage. He offers advice and perspective as our society attempts to steer from its present chaos and recession to a future of hope and opportunity. With urgency and clarity, Berry asks us to look toward a true sustainable commonwealth, grounded in realistic Jeffersonian principles applied to our present day.

Author: Wendell Berry
ISBN-10: 1582436061
ISBN-13: 9781582436067
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
Language: English
Published: 05/18/2010
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.04w x 0.57d

Review Citation(s):
Christian Century 02/22/2011 pg. 55
Books & Culture 05/01/2011 pg. 27
Booklist 05/01/2010 pg. 62
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2010 pg. 149