Mark Sundeen offers a journalistically rigorous and personally felt account of three back-to-the-land farming families in three different U.S. regions: Missouri, Detroit, and Montana. Sundeen follows his accounts with discussions of the decisions he and his wife are in the process of making about how to live and raise their family. Sundeen’s reading of his own work provides listeners with the customary advantages and disadvantages. He conveys his passion in what is a passionate story. His emphasis and pronunciation are as the author intended. But he’s not a professional narrator and is, occasionally, inclined to monotone. Sundeen does not offer easy answers. Instead, he raises questions about how to lead our lives by allowing us to see through the eyes of those who are committed to living more deliberately. F.C. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America
Narrated by Mark Sundeen
Mark SundeenUnabridged — 10 hours, 51 minutes
The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America
Narrated by Mark Sundeen
Mark SundeenUnabridged — 10 hours, 51 minutes
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Overview
The radical search for the simple life in today's America.
On a frigid April night, a classically trained opera singer, five months pregnant, and her husband, a former marine biologist, disembark an Amtrak train in La Plata, Missouri, assemble two bikes, and pedal off into the night, bound for a homestead they've purchased, sight unseen. Meanwhile, a horticulturist, heir to the Great Migration that brought masses of African Americans to Detroit, and her husband, a product of the white flight from it, have turned to urban farming to revitalize the blighted city they both love. And near Missoula, Montana, a couple who have been at the forefront of organic farming for decades navigate what it means to live and raise a family ethically.* *
A work of immersive journalism steeped in a distinctively American social history and sparked by a personal quest, The Unsettlers traces the search for the simple life through the stories of these new pioneers and what inspired each of them to look for -- or create -- a better existence. Captivating and clear-eyed, it dares us to imagine what a sustainable, ethical, authentic future might actually look like.
Editorial Reviews
When Mark Sundeen, looking for families to profile for his latest book, was introduced to farmer Luci Brieger, he explained that he was writing about the simple life. She barked back, "Nothing simple about it." Luci and her husband, Steve, are one of three couples featured in The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today's America. Like Sarah Wilcox and Ethan Hughes, who founded the electricity-, car-, and computer-free Possibility Alliance in Missouri, and Olivia Hubert and Greg Willerer, urban farmers in Detroit, they live sustainably and ethically, operating largely beyond the reach of global capitalism. But as Luci suggests, and as Sundeen's immersive, entertaining work confirms, living simply raises its own complicated questions.
Sundeen sought out Luci and Steve because they've been at it the longest: they've been growing pesticide-free vegetables for thirty years, running a successful produce business (without benefit of cell phones or computers), building a home, and raising three children on the forty acres of land they amassed over time outside of Missoula, Montana. Luci is an almost stereotypical rural curmudgeon, razzing the author for his "big city" shoes and spouting angry declarations about people who "plug in and play electronic solitaire and look at porn." But her path to family farming is interesting and instructive.
Luci arrived in Montana at the dawn of the Reagan era to attend graduate school in environmental studies. She quickly became disillusioned by her program's remote conception of "the environment," which, in Sundeen's words, was "a place outside people's homes, populated by whales, owls, rivers, forests, and air. To protect these things, laws were passed to limit human activity such as mining, drilling, damming, and logging. Yet none of the laws offered advice on how humans themselves were to live better." Luci radically changed course after reading Wendell Berry's 1977 back-to-the-land manifesto The Unsettling of America. (The book was pivotal for several of Sundeen's subjects and for the author himself, who nods to it with his title.) She quit school to apprentice at a farm that was in the vanguard of organic agriculture and, later, the local food movement. There she met Steve, one of the farm's partners; together they have maintained an ethical business that has netted them enough to support their family.
Like Luci and Steve, Olivia and Greg had desires that couldn't easily be fulfilled by the existing framework of consumer culture; they too ended up creating the world they wanted to live in. Olivia, an African-American horticulturist born and raised in Detroit, tried establishing her career there in 2008, but her economically devastated, crime-ridden hometown, in Sundeen's words, "no longer had the distinct characteristics — and advantages — of a city." For five years, the city was the largest in America that lacked a national grocery chain. Greg's parents were from Detroit but were among the majority of the city's whites who had fled for the suburbs in the 1960s. A happy childhood, however, had instilled no love of suburbia in their son. Greg considered the suburbs "the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world": energy-guzzling homes, water-guzzling lawns, gas-guzzling cars required to go anywhere, not to mention the isolation and de facto segregation. Greg moved to the city. With swaths of it abandoned and property cheap, he eventually began growing, and then selling, his own food on vacant lots. He and Olivia met at the city's bustling farmer's market. They now run Brother Nature Produce, a farm that covers a block of the blighted neighborhood of North Corktown, supplying restaurants with gourmet organic greens.
Ethan and Sarah are the most hard-core of the author's pioneers. Ethan, who Sundeen describes as "hypnotic, disturbing, prophetic, inspiring," says, "The greatest conspiracy on the planet is that we need to oppress, kill, and pollute in order to get our needs met." He and Sarah, then pregnant, bought their eighty-acre homestead in La Plata, Missouri, sight unseen because it met a number of their requirements: a long growing season, ample rainfall, an easy bike ride to a college town and a train station (they do not use cars or travel by airplane). They started the Possibility Alliance, which has "virtually excised itself from the industrial system of food, fuel, and finance," hoping to attract permanent members to live on the land with them. Those who join are required to donate all of their savings elsewhere beforehand; they live in voluntary poverty (one reason is to avoid supporting the government by paying taxes). Ethan and Sarah, Sundeen observes, have "renounced nearly every benefit of being born into the world's largest economy."
The Possibility Alliance runs well-attended weeklong seminars and has hosted a steady stream of temporary residents. Not surprisingly, Ethan and Sarah have had a more difficult time attracting permanent members. Sundeen wrote The Unsettlers because he yearned for "a life more simple and purposeful than the one I actually led, cluttered with forms to fill out, machines that beeped, and pointless tasks performed for money." But the book doesn't present a clear path forward for readers who have themselves felt such yearnings — who will certainly admire his subjects but wouldn't be able to live up to their standards. Luci is contemptuous of those who buy organic grapes shipped from Peru in the winter. Ethan's friends admit that they are stung by his judgmental attitude. I'd be scared to tell either of them how much I spent on my cup of coffee this morning.
In addition, their lives are difficult, and not just because of the relentless hard labor. How many of us would be as gung-ho as Ethan to bike twenty miles in a thunderstorm to attend a meeting? Even Sundeen admits that he is "seduced by the idea" of the simple life but "repelled by the hardship." We're in a moment when many Americans are worried that our country's core values are at risk; some will surely, as a consequence, search for ways to live more ethical lives. The Unsettlers offers inspiring and relevant possibilities; those seeking a guidebook to utopia will, like the individuals profiled here, have to draw it themselves.
Barbara Spindel has covered books for Time Out New York, Newsweek.com, Details, and Spin. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies.
Reviewer: Barbara Spindel
You say you want a revolution? These stories of “unsettlers” striving to lead more simple lives are an inspiration as well as a dose of reality on how difficult that can be. This is an important book.”
—Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
“A fascinating, timely, and deeply personal examination of what it means to be a non-conformist in the modern age."—Outside
“If talk of politics makes you pine for a life away from Twitter and cable news and the rest, Mark Sundeen's The Unsettlers offers a few tips for how to build a sustainable future." —The New York Times Book Review
"In-depth and compelling…These homesteaders show us how the other other half lives." —Los Angeles Times
“An enlightening read... [and] exceptional reporting on a topic that we’d all be wise to familiarize ourselves with.” —Paris Review
“A well-crafted, intimate portrait…Sundeen is a sympathetic, self-deprecating, imperfect Virgil, and thus a perfect, humorous, yet earnest guide on a foray into uncompromising outposts where people are striving for purity in a deeply compromised world.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“[A] deftly written study.”—Nature
“In this deft, impeccably reported book, Sundeen offers a fresh look at the recurrent American urge for the 'simple' life ... gain[ing] personal insights that feel honest and weighty." —Los Angeles Review of Books
“This fallen world has quite enough wannabe farmers, and long may they thrive. But it's frankly hard to imagine the bunch of carrots, however lovingly husbanded, that would be more nourishing than the body of work Sundeen is building.” —Missoula Independent
"A mix of social history and well-crafted journalism." —USA Today’s Green Living
"A seriously fascinating and inspiring read. It's a book for anyone who has ever wondered how to live more sustainably, more consciously, and also a bit more crazily (in a wow-how-can-they-live-without-the-internet? kind of way). Mark is a terrific writer and I was absorbed by every page of this deep, insightful examination of the lives of a handful of Americans who choose to live differently.”—Cheryl Strayed
“Sundeen captures a balance between idealism and realism that leaves the reader feeling inspired, introspective and, at the very least, a little bit unsettled.” —The Missoulian
“Pretty darn good. … Particularly interesting is the way Sundeen compares and contrasts the white, suburban mythology of “what happened to Detroit” with the urban, black perspective on the city’s transformation. … Probably the best, fairest portrayal of the Motor City’s postwar metamorphosis published since Scott Martelle’s Detroit: A Biography." —The Detroit Metro Times
“By framing the book as a search for answers, not arguments, Sundeen fills [The Unsettlers] with empathy and curiosity. Each section is distinguished by strong reporting, and Sundeen’s admiration for his subjects is clear.” —The Rumpus
“[A] carefully and affectionately reported account of idealists working not to leave the real world behind, but to make it better.”—BookPage
“A gorgeous new book that provides a contemporary twist on Wendell Berry’s 1977 classic, The Unsettling of America.... Sundeen finds beauty in each of the couples’ lives, he doesn’t flatten them into human Instagrams….[they] are weird, stubborn and strong, and Sundeen provides a nuanced picture of their beliefs… Importantly, Sundeen also acknowledges that the “renunciation of privilege” can become “just another means of exercising it.” —High Country News
“A mix of social history and well-crafted journalism, this book relays the deeply personal stories of today’s pioneers.”—Living Green
“Simplicity is a relative matter; there is no one path or goal in that quest, and the degrees of simplicity one might achieve vary widely from one person to another…Those who seek the simple life that Mark Sundeen presents in The Unsettlers reflect that diversity… Nothing is easy about riding a bicycle to La Plata in winter, or about coaxing food from the wastelands of Detroit. But all of these simplifiers have been roaring successes in one simple way: they have, through their devoted work, gained true joy in their lives.” —Missouri Historical Review
“In captivating detail, [Sundeen] explores what it takes to live off the grid, survive without government intervention and live a sustainable life...Charming, self-deprecating and honest.” —Coachella Valley Weekly
"Well researched, immediately engaging, immensely readable, and ultimately inspiring. This is the perfect read for DIY-types with dreams of saving the world, or at least their own backyards.” —Booklist
“From dirt roads in rural Missouri to Detroit’s foreclosed streets, Sundeen reports how people throughout the United States have chosen to live simple but never simply…these pages will leave any reader with a penchant for sustainability to question their own carbon footprint.” —Library Journal
“Engaging, honest, and deeply personal… Provocative reading for anyone who has ever yearned for a life of radical simplicity.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Sundeen…ask[s] important questions about technology, the economy, and the moral implications of being both critic and participant in our society.” —Publisher’s Weekly
"From a crop of orphaned garlic plants in Detroit to a tipi birth in Montana, Mark Sundeen’s The Unsettlers is rigorously reported and utterly enthralling. With candor, wit, and live-voltage curiosity, Sundeen profiles pioneers who have developed better ways to live in our overdeveloped world. The Unsettlers isn’t in the business of guilt or shame mongering, but it will certainly—if you have a pulse and a laptop, or even an electrical socket—make you question how you live in the world as well."
—Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams
“With his chronicles of modern-day American visionaries and iconoclasts who have opted out of the mainstream culture, I’ve come to think of Mark Sundeen as our poet laureate of a new era of alternative lifestyles.”
—Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
"The Unsettlers portrait of six true-hearted hero's of husbandry pitted against the Corporate Person would put the fear of God in that monster if it had a pulse. Sundeen’s opus combines fierce reasoning, romance, impeccable research, the narrative pull of a thriller, and the subliminal magic of some wondrous old myth as he takes the measure of America’s betrayed yearning for a living, thriving earth."—David James Duncan, author of The River Why and The Brothers K
11/01/2016
In recent years, going off the grid as a modern-day homesteader has become idealized after glamorized depictions in popular culture and on social media. However, homesteading loses its reality TV show sheen in the hands of Sundeen (The Man Who Quit Money), portraying this humble lifestyle choice as more gritty than romantic. From dirt roads in rural Missouri to Detroit's foreclosed streets, Sundeen reports how people throughout the United States have chosen to live simple but never simply. In the footsteps of Wendell Berry's classic The Unsettling of America, which offered a call to find one's roots and unsettle America, here we meet three couples who are willing to create their own vision of success. While never preachy, these pages will leave any reader with a penchant for sustainability to question their own carbon footprint. VERDICT An engaging read for those with an interest in sustainable living, urban farming, and homesteading.—Angela Forret, Clive P.L., IA
Mark Sundeen offers a journalistically rigorous and personally felt account of three back-to-the-land farming families in three different U.S. regions: Missouri, Detroit, and Montana. Sundeen follows his accounts with discussions of the decisions he and his wife are in the process of making about how to live and raise their family. Sundeen’s reading of his own work provides listeners with the customary advantages and disadvantages. He conveys his passion in what is a passionate story. His emphasis and pronunciation are as the author intended. But he’s not a professional narrator and is, occasionally, inclined to monotone. Sundeen does not offer easy answers. Instead, he raises questions about how to lead our lives by allowing us to see through the eyes of those who are committed to living more deliberately. F.C. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
2016-10-18
Bright update on the perennial back-to-the-land movement.In this engaging, honest, and deeply personal account, Outside correspondent Sundeen (The Man Who Quit Money, 2012, etc.) tells the stories of three American families who have pursued alternative ways of living. Eschewing conveniences, materialism, and "the compromises of contemporary life," each has joined a movement consisting of "local food and urban farms, bike coops and time banks and tool libraries, permaculture and guerrilla gardening, homebirthing and homeschooling and home cooking." In researching their adventures in homesteading, Sundeen hoped to learn for himself how to lead a good life. Though his personal reflections meander, sometimes annoyingly, his superb reporting produces revealing portraits of modern hippies: Ethan Hughes and Sarah Wilcox, pursuing off-the-grid lives of secular utopianism and religious activism as farmers in the intentional community of Possibility Alliance in La Plata, Missouri; Olivia Hubert and Greg Willerer, working to create "a new economic model of food distribution" through Brother Nature Produce, an urban farm in violence-wracked Detroit; and Luci Brieger and Steve Elliott, a middle-aged farming couple in Victor, Montana, with three kids and a $40,000 yearly income, who have rejected the internet and popular culture in "uncompromising pursuit of an ethical life" in the local food movement. These unsettlers' early backgrounds vary from privileged to poor to hippie, but Sundeen shows how all take "true joy in work," seek constructive ways of living in society, and reap considerable rewards in their simple lives of voluntary poverty. The author is especially good at showing the difficulty of raising children in a connected society while wondering, as one iconoclast says here, "how do we fight the Man if we continue to buy his cheeseburgers?" He places these often inspiring, sometimes self-righteous families firmly in the American utopian tradition and traces the pervasive influences of authors from Tolstoy to Helen and Scott Nearing to Wendell Berry. Provocative reading for anyone who has ever yearned for a life of radical simplicity.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169352986 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
| Publication date: | 01/10/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Sales rank: | 1,067,078 |
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