The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture by Wendell Berry; partial translation and analysis on wilderness and modern society.

Abstract

In a world that invites us to progress endlessly and to keep up with technological developments and the changes they imply, the American writer and farmer Wendell Berry asks us to stop for a second and take a deeper look at what we are doing. Are these changes we are bringing about necessary? Do we need all the help we now get from machines? And is all this healthy for our planet? In his book published in 1975 The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, Berry analyses what he considers to be the main problems linked with modern capitalist society, and how going back to a simpler way of living would benefit us all. In this thesis, I will give an overview of the modern situation and the life of the author and subsequently I will translate the first chapters of this book. I will finally analyse some of the topics Berry focuses on, such as the crisis of character that the modern lifestyle has generated, and the concept of wilderness, looking at how its importance shifted over time. Berry’s work is essential because it shows how in our society the environment has been sacrificed for the realisation of any kind of human desire.