Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58888 in Books
• Published on: 1990-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 411 pages

Synopsis
The authors recount how they created a lifestyle based on self-reliance, good health, and a minimum of cash.

Customer Reviews

Excellent in all respects
This book is about a couple who develop a self-sufficient life style. Originally I bought the book as a blue print for retirement so that I could pluck from it those things I wanted for my family - a very good guide for such a purpose. However, the Nearings had a very strong set of principles, which sets them aside from most people who want to get away from city life. An initial period of work in his grandfather's mine alongside immigrant workers turned Scott into an outspoken critic of the social system resulting in his being fired from his university post and made unemployable. Royalties on his textbooks, widely used in the educational system, ceased. Scott's wife, Helen, was also a very high-principled person. Perhaps this was the ultimate secret of their long-term success - they were completely uncompromising on whatever principles they adopted.

Helen Nearing tells us that they left the city with three objectives:
- economic: independence from the commodity and labor markets
- hygienic: to maintain and improve health
- social and ethical: to liberate and dissociate from the cruder forms of exploitation - plunder of the planet, slavery of man and beast, slaughter in war and animals for food. They were against the accumulation of profit and unearned income by non-producers.

She goes on to tell us that after 20 years:
- a piece of eroded, depleted mountain land had been restored to fertility
- a successful economy without animals, animal products, chemical fertilizers had been created
- a subsistence household had been established , paying its way and yielding a modest surplus
- a small scale business had been established from which wagery had been virtually eliminated
- health was at a high level
- the complexities of city life had been replaced by a simple life pattern
- they enjoyed six months labor and six months leisure used for research, travel, writing, speaking, teaching
- they always had an open house for hundreds of people annually

We are told that no family group of vigor, energy, purpose, imagination and determination need continue to wear the yoke of a competitive, acquisitive, and predatory culture. A family can live with nature, make a living, preserve and enhance efficiency, enjoy leisure, and do their part to make the world a better place. They maintain that a couple of any age 20-50 with minimum health, intelligence and capital can adapt to country living, learn its crafts, overcome its difficulties and build a rich pattern of life of simple values, being productive of personal and social good.

If you have wondered whether city life is for you, there is no better book to read than "The Good Life".

A wealth of detail; and food for thought
I'm writing this review primarily because the previous review does not reflect the true value of this book. I agree this book is not a casual read. It is a very detailed document of how two intellectuals born into privilidged circumstances, eventually rejected the exploitation they saw in society, prefering a frugal life in the country where they could live according to their principles.

I believe they wrote this book because they had found something of value they wanted to share with anyone who was interested, and not to make a fast buck.

The depth of information on what they ate, how they grew their food, preserved their crops , their 'leisure' time etc - although it is written to their own situation, gives insights into self sufficient living that I have not gleaned from other books before. This book is genuine. They do not pretend to be experts in the field of smallholding. They were almost complete novices, out on their own, learning from their mistakes.

If you stick out reading the book, you will also gain a real sense of how time management takes on a new meaning. We tend to plan goals taking only a few weeks to achieve, perhaps a year before the job is done. Helen and Scott Nearing took on projects that took decades to complete e.g. Scott digging the lake by hand. If you don't have the will to finish the book, then self sufficient living is definately not for you.

For 'lighter' reading and real insight into their relationship, read 'Loving and leaving the good life'. Very touching.

The Nearing's were such wonderful people!
This is a fantastic book. It's full of information, fun facts, excellent recommendations and how-to information. I've read it several times and I'll read it several more times. I live here in Maine and felt a great connection to their way of life. As a homesteader, I benefitted from their shared knowledge a lot.