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Schöne Alte Welt: Ein Praktischer Leitfaden Für Das Leben Auf Dem Lande (German Edition) (2011)

by Tom Hodgkinson(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Rogner & Bernhard

review 1: Debated what to rate this as the actual "practical" side of things is mostly irrelevant to me. Firstly because I currently live in the southern hemisphere with different seasons (and summers as harsh as the winters are in England), and secondly because I've lived on a farm my whole life and so most of the information Tom and his family are just learning is stuff my father has known since a young age (hunting, fishing, raising livestock etc). Though I would love to try keeping bees! What I loved most was the comparison between the Old World and New (something explored in greater depth in his other books, I've come to find), but I actually enjoyed having read this one first, as it was a good little introduction to the full-pelt opinions in How to Be Free (and what I assume I... more will find in Idle as well) and helped me to understand where he was coming from with his medieval idealism that people criticise in his other books. I'm lending this one to my parents (or at least my mother) so they can have a read too, I know they'll find it interesting for all the same reasons as I did!
review 2: As the author admits, this is not a complete how-to of going back to the land (although often I wished it were!). It is part how-to, part memoir/personal tale, part history. Oftentimes these three parts worked less in harmony than I would have liked, and as an ex-medievalist I was already familiar with a lot of the source material the author shares, so there was some disappointment for me that it used so much space in the book. (Doubly so as it seems several passages are re-used in different places.)I did learn some things about smallholding and quasi-rural self-sufficiency that I didn't know before, but much of the more specific advice about the legality of backyard dungheaps and beekeeping, etc., is irrelevant to anyone outside of the U.K.I enjoyed the month-by-month format and wish other authors would do the same instead of grouping this type of knowledge topically, which makes it hard for city folks to know when they should be doing what. Brave Old World's format also mirrors the books of hours it so frequently alludes to, and I enjoy that rekindling of a sensible tradition of husbandry education. I agree with the author's call to self-sufficiency and a rejection of capitalism's monoculture and the non-participatory nature of so much of our entertainments, but I'm not sure if I agree that reviving Christian feast days are as great a solution as he does. This book was at its best when the author was relating useful and/or comedic tales from his own attempt at smallholding, rather than politicizing it endlessly (which preaches to the choir and alienates those in the wings), or using page space for a few too many primary sources. However, the bibliography is an excellent resource for people interested in the history of agriculture, and there are several very intriguing contemporary books mentioned throughout. This book may be a good place to start for those who are not yet well-versed in the principles and practice of U.K.-style smallholding and utopianism. less

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