{"product_id":"new-pioneers-the-back-to-the-land-movement-and-the-search-for-a-sustainable-future-9780271029894","title":"New Pioneers: The Back-to-the-Land Movement and the Search for a Sustainable Future","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Jeffrey Carl Jacob\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Penn State University Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Penn State University Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Sociology - Rural\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[P]ractically everyone I know is nursing fantasies about escaping the life they're trapped in and creating one that makes more sense,\" writes the editor of \u003ci\u003eUtne Reader\u003c\/i\u003e in a recent issue. \"The people I most admire, though, are those who actually do it--who break free and pursue a higher calling no matter how great the risk.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Pioneer\u003c\/i\u003es is about one such group of people--the hundreds of thousands of urban North Americans who over the past three decades have given up their city or suburban homes for a few acres of land in the countryside.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJeffrey Jacob's new pioneers are ordinary people who have tried to break away from the mainstream consumer culture and return to small-town and rural America. He traces the development of the movement and identifies seven different kinds of back-to-the-lander: the weekender, country romantic, purist, country entrepreneur, pensioner, micro-farmer, and apprentice. From over 1,300 survey responses, interviews, and in-depth case studies, at both the regional and national levels, of representative back-to-the-landers, Jacob analyzes their values, use of appropriate technology, family division of labor on their acreages, and predisposition toward environmental activism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJacob finds that back-to-the-landers for the most part are not completely independent of the mainstream economy, and consequently, their lives do reflect the contradictions between the available conveniences of a high-technology culture and the movement's goals of self-reliant labor. He analyzes their ambivalent attitudes toward technology--hoes and shovels versus mini-hydroelectric systems, wood stoves versus microwave ovens, and so on. After examining the experiences of the back-to-the-country people who live on the margins of a postindustrial society, Jacob creates a clearer appreciation of the preconditions necessary to translate the idea of sustainable living into concrete action on a society-wide scale.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile \u003ci\u003eNew Pioneers\u003c\/i\u003e describes an important social movement, it also shows how far a group of highly motivated individuals and families can go, by themselves, in breaking away from the prevailing consumer culture. The dilemmas, frustrations, adaptations, and triumphs of these neo-homesteaders offer valuable insights to anyone contemplating a move \"back to the land.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penn State University Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47614652252311,"sku":"9780271029894","price":4602.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780271029894.webp?v=1775095244","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/new-pioneers-the-back-to-the-land-movement-and-the-search-for-a-sustainable-future-9780271029894","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}