Help find Wendell Berry writing about urban biases toward rural America

August 7, 2009 7:52 AM

I am looking for an essay by Wendell Berry where he talks about urban America's dismissive biases toward rural America, and critiques this attitude.

I believe I read this in the updated version of The Unsettling of America, but I'm not at all sure. I'm sure he's made the argument elsewhere, and that would be fine too.

The point is, I'm far from a library and need to find passages where Berry makes this argument as soon as possible. Can anyone help?

If you know of good progressive critiques along the same lines as Berry's, please feel free to post those too. Thanks!

posted by jeffmshaw to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

I know this isn't exactly it, but here's an essay that discusses not so much dismissive biases as our (city dwellers) ignorance of agriculture. Some of the critiques and practical approaches are presented here, though it's not the main focus: http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/rsl/wendell-berry.html
posted by yamel at 8:00 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

But, shoot! This one's probably much more to the heart of it: http://www.psu.edu/dept/jrre/articles/v13,n2,p131-138,Howley.pdf [PDF]

Good luck!
posted by yamel at 8:03 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think this is it.
posted by OilPull at 9:36 AM on August 7, 2009 [1 favorite]

In bell hooks' book Belonging: A Culture of Place, she compares her personal history with that of Wendell Berry, in how they both were born in Kentucky, moved to New York, and then returned to Kentucky. Apparently she's met Mr.Berry several times, and they've sat down and discussed such things, including the biases. What it means to be raised in tobacco country, for instance, versus the perception of tobacco. She discusses Mr.Berry in depth throughout the book. It's not the Berry essay you were looking for, but I thought you might be interested.
posted by redsparkler at 11:18 AM on August 7, 2009 [2 favorites]

Just popping in to say once you find it, post it to the blue.
posted by kldickson at 12:07 PM on August 7, 2009

This is driving me crazy. I know the essay that you're talking about specifically. It rambles on about driving through nowhere and never really cognitively realizing what/where that nowhere is. Fuuuuuuu! I hate not being able to recall things like this.
posted by macrowave at 1:21 AM on August 8, 2009

As for other writers, you might want to check out Gene Logsdon.
posted by werkzeuger at 7:10 AM on August 8, 2009