KIRKPATRICK SALE is a writer and lecturer whose books include
SDS;
Human Scale; and
The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy. His articles have appeared in the
New York Review of Books,
Newsweek, the
Nation,
Mother Jones,
Utne Reader,
Rain,
Harper's, and the
New York Times Magazine. He lives in New York.Imagine a world structured around ecological and cultural diversity, rather than national and political parameters. In response to present and impending ecological and economic crises, Kirkpatrick Sale offers a definitive introduction to the unique concept of bioregionalism, an alternative way of organizing society to create smaller scale, more ecologically sound, individually responsive communities with renewable economies and cultures. He emphasizes, among many other factors, the concept of regionalism through natural population division, settlement near and stewardship of watershed areas, and the importance of communal ownership of and responsibility for the land.
Dwellers in the Land focuses on the realistic development of these bioregionally focused communities and the places where they are established to create a society that is both ecologically sustainable and satisfying to its inhabitants.
If it's radical and leading edge, Sale probably wrote about it sooner and better than anyone else.
Dwellers in the Land is at once an alarm, a directive, and a tonic. One could hardly ask for more.
A serious and wonderful book . . . excellent reading from cover to cover.
Dwellers in the Land addresses questions of the greatest importance to the future of human life. . . . Its truths are timely, and they encouragel#‡