Citizenship Papers (eBook)

Discerning the political import of complex current events requires great urgency, clarity, and care. Nothing less than the future of our nation is at stake. Wendell Berry's Citizenship Papers , a collection of nineteen essays, is a ringing alarm, a call for resistance and responsibility, and a reminder of how fragile our commonwealth has become at the dawn of the twenty-first century."We are encouraged to believe that the governments and corporations of the affluent parts of the world are run by people using rational processes to make rational decisions. The dominant faith of the world in our time is rationality. That in an age of reason, the human race, or the most wealthy and powerful parts of it, should be behaving with colossal irrationality ought to make us wonder if reason alone can lead us to do what is right." From "Two Minds"

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"e;The courage of a book, it has been said, is that it looks away from nothing. Here is a brave book."e; The Charlotte Observer "e;Berry says that these recent essays mostly say again what he has said before. His faithful readers may think he hasn't, however, said any of it better before."e; Booklist (starred review)"e;His refusal to abandon the local for the global, to sacrifice neighborliness, community integrity, and economic diversity for access to Wal-Mart, has never seemed more appealing, nor his questions of personal accountability more powerful."e; Kirkus ReviewsThere are those in America today who seem to feel we must audition for our citizenship, with "e;patriot"e; 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. Citizenship Papers collects nineteen new essays, from celebrations of exemplary lives to critiques of American life, including "e;A Citizen's Response [to the new National Security Strategy]"e;-a ringing call of caution to a nation standing on the brink of global catastrophe.