Twenty Acres: A Seventies Childhood in the Woods: Ozarks Studies
Autor Sarah Neidhardten Limba Engleză Paperback – 7 mar 2023
—Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature
“Twenty Acres is an engaging, thoughtful memoir of growing up in an off-the-grid cabin as part of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement. Sarah Neidhardt captures her subject beautifully and offers a compelling portrait of a highly specific, historically significant time and place.”
—Kate Daloz, author of We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America
Sarah Neidhardt grew up in the woods. When she was an infant, her parents left behind comfortable, urbane lives to take part in the back-to-the-land movement. They moved their young family to an isolated piece of land deep in the Arkansas Ozarks where they built a cabin, grew crops, and strove for eight years to live self-sufficiently.
In this vivid memoir Neidhardt explores her childhood in wider familial and social contexts. Drawing upon a trove of family letters and other archival material, she follows her parents’ journey from privilege to food stamps—from their formative youths, to their embrace of pioneer homemaking and rural poverty, to their sudden and wrenching return to conventional society—and explores the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s as it was, and as she lived it.
A story of strangers in a strange land, of class, marriage, and family in a changing world, Twenty Acres: A Seventies Childhood in the Woods is part childhood idyll, part cautionary tale. Sarah Neidhardt reveals the treasures and tolls of unconventional, pastoral lives, and her insightful reflections offer a fresh perspective on what it means to aspire to pre-industrial lifestyles in a modern world.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781682262276
ISBN-10: 1682262278
Pagini: 320
Ilustrații: 49 photographs
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 28 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: University of Arkansas Press
Colecția University of Arkansas Press
Seria Ozarks Studies
ISBN-10: 1682262278
Pagini: 320
Ilustrații: 49 photographs
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 28 mm
Greutate: 0.45 kg
Editura: University of Arkansas Press
Colecția University of Arkansas Press
Seria Ozarks Studies
Recenzii
"Good stories are to be cherished and shared. They also help us understand ourselves and our communities. Sarah Neidhardt has written such a story in Twenty Acres. ... Sarah Neidhardt shares that magical childhood with us in a deeply personal way. ... [H]er story is remarkable in the way she weaves her rich sources together to paint a picture of one family enduring the hardships of living in the Ozarks int eh 1970s. I highly recommend this book."
—Thomas M. Kersen, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter 2022 (September 2024) “By not glorifying the BTTL (back to the land) movement, Twenty Acres will help scholars consider harder questions about the complicated legacy of affluent whites who sought out voluntary simplicity for self-actualization as much as social reform.”
—Jinny Turman, Missouri Historical Review, October 2024
“At turns poetic, shocking, terrifying, and nostalgic—and always riveting and real as dirt—Sarah Neidhardt’s meticulously researched memoir gives voice to a generation of back-to-the-landers’ children and to this hidden history of American family life.”
—Ariel Gore, author of The Wayward Writer: Summon Your Power to Take Back Your Story, Liberate Yourself from Capitalism, and Publish Like a Superstar
“Twenty Acres is authentic, clear, and evocative . . . a superb book.”
—David Orr, author of Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward
“Weaving together extraordinary research and memories with gorgeously rendered prose, Neidhardt captures the zeitgeist of the back-to-the-land movement in the story of her family’s years in the Ozarks. Equal parts memoir and ethnography, Twenty Acres is lush, haunting, and ultimately elegiac.”
—Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home
“Disillusioned with the modern world and idealistic about living closer to nature, Sarah Neidhardt’s parents packed up from Colorado—a place that some other back-to-landers would seek out—and moved to small, isolated Fox, Arkansas to attempt living completely self-sufficiently and off-the-grid. In this memoir, Neidhardt examines her memories from that time, and also pinpoints one of the most particularly problematic parts of the back-to-the-land movement, which is that many of its participants were anchored in privilege. … A memoir infused with both empathy and inquiry.”
—Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature
“Twenty Acres is a sensitive, thoughtful, honest book full of details that give this period in the author’s life solidity. … Her book is a gift that shows how her ‘back to the land’ experience unfolded and what was gained or lost as a result. If you are interested in this period and the folks who sought a way of living that was more sustainable (before the term became commonplace), then this is worthwhile. The writing is clear, shorn of cliches and her voice is kind, showing compassion over judgment.”
—Louise Halsey, Fort Smith Historical Society Journal, October 2023
“For those who are granola right down to their toes (and those who survived parents like that). The memoir Twenty Acres from Colorado-born author Sarah Neidhardt recounts her family’s move from Colorado Springs to the isolated wilds of the Arkansas Ozarks, where they pioneered a homestead in bohemian counterculture style. Whether you lived in a yurt or just had to trade chocolate for carob now and then, any child of the ’70s will recognize themselves in this book.”
—Teague Bohlen, Westworld, “Colorado Books for Holiday Gift Giving”
“Dotted with delightful photos and memorable anecdotes, Twenty Acres is a captivating look at one family’s journey into an 'off-the-grid' lifestyle and their jarring return to conventional society.”
—Michelle Kicherer, Willamette Week, January 2023
—Thomas M. Kersen, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter 2022 (September 2024) “By not glorifying the BTTL (back to the land) movement, Twenty Acres will help scholars consider harder questions about the complicated legacy of affluent whites who sought out voluntary simplicity for self-actualization as much as social reform.”
—Jinny Turman, Missouri Historical Review, October 2024
“At turns poetic, shocking, terrifying, and nostalgic—and always riveting and real as dirt—Sarah Neidhardt’s meticulously researched memoir gives voice to a generation of back-to-the-landers’ children and to this hidden history of American family life.”
—Ariel Gore, author of The Wayward Writer: Summon Your Power to Take Back Your Story, Liberate Yourself from Capitalism, and Publish Like a Superstar
“Twenty Acres is authentic, clear, and evocative . . . a superb book.”
—David Orr, author of Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward
“Weaving together extraordinary research and memories with gorgeously rendered prose, Neidhardt captures the zeitgeist of the back-to-the-land movement in the story of her family’s years in the Ozarks. Equal parts memoir and ethnography, Twenty Acres is lush, haunting, and ultimately elegiac.”
—Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home
“Disillusioned with the modern world and idealistic about living closer to nature, Sarah Neidhardt’s parents packed up from Colorado—a place that some other back-to-landers would seek out—and moved to small, isolated Fox, Arkansas to attempt living completely self-sufficiently and off-the-grid. In this memoir, Neidhardt examines her memories from that time, and also pinpoints one of the most particularly problematic parts of the back-to-the-land movement, which is that many of its participants were anchored in privilege. … A memoir infused with both empathy and inquiry.”
—Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature
“Twenty Acres is a sensitive, thoughtful, honest book full of details that give this period in the author’s life solidity. … Her book is a gift that shows how her ‘back to the land’ experience unfolded and what was gained or lost as a result. If you are interested in this period and the folks who sought a way of living that was more sustainable (before the term became commonplace), then this is worthwhile. The writing is clear, shorn of cliches and her voice is kind, showing compassion over judgment.”
—Louise Halsey, Fort Smith Historical Society Journal, October 2023
“For those who are granola right down to their toes (and those who survived parents like that). The memoir Twenty Acres from Colorado-born author Sarah Neidhardt recounts her family’s move from Colorado Springs to the isolated wilds of the Arkansas Ozarks, where they pioneered a homestead in bohemian counterculture style. Whether you lived in a yurt or just had to trade chocolate for carob now and then, any child of the ’70s will recognize themselves in this book.”
—Teague Bohlen, Westworld, “Colorado Books for Holiday Gift Giving”
“Dotted with delightful photos and memorable anecdotes, Twenty Acres is a captivating look at one family’s journey into an 'off-the-grid' lifestyle and their jarring return to conventional society.”
—Michelle Kicherer, Willamette Week, January 2023
Notă biografică
Sarah Neidhardt has worked as a bookseller, secretary, paralegal, copyeditor, and stay-at-home mother. She grew up in Arkansas and Northern California and now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and teenage son. She is a graduate of Oberlin College.