The Simple Life by David E Shi
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.
In the diversity of their aspirations and failings, Shi finds that nothing is simple about our mercurial devotion to the ideal of plain living and high thinking. Difficult choices are the price of simplicity, he writes in the book's revised epilogue. We may hedge a bit in the practice of simple living, and now and then we are driven by motives no deeper than nostalgia. Shi stresses, however, that the diverse efforts to avoid anxious social striving and compulsive materialism have been essential to the nation's spiritual health.
A balanced, sensitive and comprehensive account of a major theme in American cultural history- The Nation
Shi, David E.: - David Emory Shi is president emeritus at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. He is the author of several books focusing on American cultural history, including the award-winning The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture and Facing Facts: Realism in American Thought and Culture, 1850-1920, and the best-selling survey texts America: A Narrative History, Full and Brief (now in their Twelfth Editions) and America: Essential Learning Edition (now in its Third Edition). He remains highly engaged with students and instructors around the country with his many annual author-in-residence visits to campuses.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780820329758 |
| ISBN 10 | 0820329754 |
| Title | The Simple Life |
| Author | David E Shi |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Georgia Press |
| Year published | 2007-07-30 |
| Number of pages | 360 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |