A Private History of Awe

A Private History of Awe PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: North Point Press
ISBN: 0374707995
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
An original and searching memoir from "one of America's finest essayists" (Phillip Lopate) When Scott Russell Sanders was four, his father held him in his arms during a thunderstorm, and he felt awe—"the tingle of a power that surges through bone and rain and everything." He says, "The search for communion with this power has run like a bright thread through all my days." A Private History of Awe is an account of this search, told as a series of awe-inspiring episodes: his early memory of watching a fire with his father; his attraction to the solemn cadences of the Bible despite his frustration with Sunday-school religion; his discovery of books and the body; his mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and all forms of violence; his decision to leave behind the university life of Oxford and Harvard and return to Indiana, where three generations of his family have put down roots. In many ways, this is the story of a generation's passage through the 1960s—from innocence to experience, from euphoria to disillusionment. But Sanders has found a language that captures the transcendence of ordinary lives while never reducing them to formula. In his hands, the pattern of American boyhood that was made classic by writers from Mark Twain to Tobias Wolff is given a powerful new charge.

A Private History of Awe

A Private History of Awe PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: North Point Press
ISBN: 0374707995
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
An original and searching memoir from "one of America's finest essayists" (Phillip Lopate) When Scott Russell Sanders was four, his father held him in his arms during a thunderstorm, and he felt awe—"the tingle of a power that surges through bone and rain and everything." He says, "The search for communion with this power has run like a bright thread through all my days." A Private History of Awe is an account of this search, told as a series of awe-inspiring episodes: his early memory of watching a fire with his father; his attraction to the solemn cadences of the Bible despite his frustration with Sunday-school religion; his discovery of books and the body; his mounting opposition to the Vietnam War and all forms of violence; his decision to leave behind the university life of Oxford and Harvard and return to Indiana, where three generations of his family have put down roots. In many ways, this is the story of a generation's passage through the 1960s—from innocence to experience, from euphoria to disillusionment. But Sanders has found a language that captures the transcendence of ordinary lives while never reducing them to formula. In his hands, the pattern of American boyhood that was made classic by writers from Mark Twain to Tobias Wolff is given a powerful new charge.

A Conservationist Manifesto

A Conservationist Manifesto PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253002850
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
“Eloquent . . . a must-read for anyone committed to taking care of the natural world and passing it along to future generations” (ForeWord). As an antidote to the destructive culture of consumption dominating American life today, Scott Russell Sanders calls for a culture of conservation that allows us to savor and preserve the world, instead of devouring it. How might we shift to a more durable and responsible way of life? What changes in values and behavior will be required? Ranging from southern Indiana to the Boundary Waters Wilderness, and from billboards to the Bible, Sanders’s 40-point blueprint for ecological health extends the visions of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Rachel Carson to our own day. A Conservationist Manifesto shows the crucial relevance of a conservation ethic at a time of mounting concern about global climate change, depletion of natural resources, extinction of species, and the economic inequities between rich and poor nations. The important message of these “original and intriguing” essays is that conservation is not simply a personal virtue but a public one (Publishers Weekly). “A book to be savored—for its language, its stories, its sense of place, and for how it reminds us of the profound relationships with nature and each other that can inspire us to change how we live on this planet.” —Will Rogers, President, The Trust for Public Land

The Way of Imagination

The Way of Imagination PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Catapult
ISBN: 1640093664
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Get Book Here

Book Description
Prize–winning essayist turns to the imagination as a spiritual guide and material method of living through climate disruption, as climate change and broad extinction forever alter our place on the planet and our lives together. Scott Russell Sanders shows how imagination, linked to compassion, can help us solve the urgent ecological and social challenges we face. While reflecting on the conditions needed for human flourishing, he tells the story of his own intellectual and moral journey from childhood religion to an adult philosophy of life. That philosophy is tested when his first wife and then their son fall ill. Compelled to leave their beloved old house, they design a new one, and then transform their vision into a home and their raw city lot into a garden.

Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance

Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance PDF Author: James P. Wade
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781720249771
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book Here

Book Description
The military posture and capability of the United States of America are, today, dominant. Simply put, there is no external adversary in the world that can successfully challenge the extraordinary power of the American military in either regional conflict or in "conventional" war as we know it once the United States makes the commitment to take whatever action may be needed. To be sure, the first phase of a crisis may be the most difficult-if an aggressor has attacked and U.S. forces are not in place. However, it will still be years, if not decades, before potential adversaries will be able to deploy systems with a full panoply of capabilities that are equivalent to or better than the aggregate strength of the ships, aircraft, armored vehicles, and weapons systems in our inventory. Even if an adversary could deploy similar systems, then matching and overcoming the superb training and preparation of American service personnel would still be a daunting task.

Crawdad Creek

Crawdad Creek PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253034779
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 22

Get Book Here

Book Description
There's always something happening at Crawdad Creek. That's what Lizzie and Michael call the stream that runs behind their house. Come pan for gold, hunt for fossils, find an arrowhead in the mud or a crayfish under a stone. Watch whirligig beetles and water striders skate across the water, teasing the fish below, and count the turtles sunning themselves on moss-covered logs. Follow tracks along the bank, then sit in quiet amazement as deer, raccoons, and other animals visit the creek. There's a wild and beautiful world here waiting to be discovered. Take the time to look!

Staying Put

Staying Put PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Beacon Press (MA)
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
"In the tradition of Wendell Berry, Sanders champions fidelity to place, informed by ecological awareness, arguing that intimacy with one's home region is the grounding for global knowledge. "Reflective, rhapsodic, luminous essays. . . . A wise and beautifully written book."-Publishers Weekly, starred review

Hunting for Hope

Hunting for Hope PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807063223
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book Here

Book Description
After an angry confrontation with his son on a hiking trip intended to restore their relationship, Scott Sanders realizes that his own despair has darkened his son's world. In Hunting for Hope he sets out to gather his own reasons for facing the future with hope, finding powers of healing in nature, in culture, in community, in spirit, and within each of us.

Earth Works

Earth Works PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253007127
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the hands of award-winning writer Scott Russell Sanders, the essay becomes an inquisitive and revelatory form of art. In 30 of his finest essays—nine never before collected—Sanders examines his Midwestern background, his father's drinking, his opposition to war, his literary inheritance, and his feeling for wildness. He also tackles such vital issues as the disruption of Earth's climate, the impact of technology, the mystique of money, the ideology of consumerism, and the meaning of sustainability. Throughout, he asks perennial questions: What is a good life? How do family and culture shape a person's character? How should we treat one another and the Earth? What is our role in the cosmos? Readers and writers alike will find wisdom and inspiration in Sanders's luminous and thought-provoking prose.

Paradise of Bombs

Paradise of Bombs PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807063444
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 180

Get Book Here

Book Description
This award-winning collection moves from the dark and technically astonishing title essay—on growing up within the confines of a huge Army arsenal in Ohio—to reflections on mountain hikes, limestone quarries, and fathers teaching their sons.

Writing from the Center

Writing from the Center PDF Author: Scott Russell Sanders
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253211439
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description
Writing from the Center is about one very fine writer's quest for a meaningful and moral life. The center he seeks and describes is geographical, emotional, artistic, and spiritual - and it is rooted in place. The geography is midwestern, the impulses are universal. Where and how do we find meaning? Where does a writer find inspiration? How can personal, artistic, family, and community needs be blended to create a harmonious life? What aids exist in such a ""located"" life against despair? How should a writer relate to and represent his place? Twelve interrelated essays probe these questions from different perspectives. ""Buckeye"" examines the resonance of objects and the mysteries of relationships and death. ""Imagining the Midwest"" surveys how other writers have seen and related to their region. ""The Common Life"" makes an eloquent case for community values. ""Sanctuary"" is an eloquent and painful consideration of environmental degradation. ""Writing from the Center"" and ""Letter to a Reader"" deal with Sanders's decisions to locate in the Midwest, to know his place, and to write about it in both fiction and nonfiction.