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The Gift of Good Land: Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural
Wendell Berry (1981)281pages

In the twenty-four essays of this collection, Wendell Berry stresses the carefully modulated harmonics of indivisibility in culture and agriculture, the interdependence, the wholeness, the oneness, of man, animals, the land, the weather, and the family. To touch one, he shows is to tamper with them all. Here he continues issues first raised in The Unsettling of America; the problems addressed there are still with us and the solutions no nearer to hand. Mr. Berry writes of his journeys to the highlands of Peru, the deserts of southern Arizona, and the Amish country to study traditional agricultural practices. He writes of homesteading, tools and their uses, horses and tractors, family work, land reclamation, diversified land use. In the title essay Mr. Berry draws parallels between the Christian notion of stewardship and the Buddhist doctrine of "right livelihood." He develops the compelling argument that the "gift" of good land has strings attached: the receipient has it only as long as he practices responsible stewardship. (North Point Press)



Permaculture: A Designer's Manual
Bill Mollison (1988) 574pages

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order...Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms...The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions, rather than asking only one yield of them; and of allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions. - from the author's Preface (Tagari Press)



Water, Electricity and Health: Protecting ourselves from electromagnetic stress
Alan Hall (1997) 173pages

Electricity, magnetism, water and life are four diverse elements which all form vital ingredients of our natural environment, and have done so for geological ages. Now, in the late twentieth century, the balance between them is very rapidly changing. In the following pages we will look at some of the causes and effects of this shift, and at possible solutions and remedies for what has become a problem of far-reaching dimensions. - from the author's Introduction: A Shifting Balance (Hawthorne Press)



Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor
Time Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti (1999) 226pages

Berners-Lee offers insights to help readers understand the true nature of the Web, enabling them to use it to their fullest advantage. He shares his views on such critical issues as censorship, privacy, the increasing power of software companies in the online world, and the need to find the ideal balance between the commercial and social forces on the Web. His incisive criticism of the Web's current state makes clear that there is still much work to be done. Finally, Berners-Lee presents his own plan for the Web's future, one that calls for the active support, and participation of programmers, computer manufacturers, and social organizations to make it happen. His vision of the Web is something much more than a tool for research and communication; it is a new way of thinking and a means to greater freedom and social growth than ever possible. (HarperSanFrancisco)


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