{"product_id":"the-simple-life-plain-living-and-high-thinking-in-american-culture-9780820329758","title":"The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003eOur current less-is-more impulse may have contemporary trappings, says David E. Shi, but the underlying ideal has been around for centuries. From Puritans and Quakers to Boy Scouts and hippies, our quest for the simple life is an enduring, complex tradition in American culture. Looking across more than three centuries of want and prosperity, war and peace, Shi introduces a rich cast of practitioners and proponents of the simple life, among them Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Jane Addams, Scott and Helen Nearing, and Jimmy Carter. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the diversity of their aspirations and failings, Shi finds that nothing is simple about our mercurial devotion to the ideal of plain living and high thinking. \"Difficult choices are the price of simplicity,\" he writes in the book's revised epilogue. We may hedge a bit in the practice of simple living, and now and then we are driven by motives no deeper than nostalgia. Shi stresses, however, that the diverse efforts to avoid anxious social striving and compulsive materialism have been essential to the nation's spiritual health.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e David E. Shi\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/01\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 344\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.21lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.25h x 6.22w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820329758","brand":"University of Georgia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43981287030921,"sku":"9780820329758","price":36.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_6e454dac-72ab-417d-9cca-dfb224c0a1de.jpg?v=1747120944","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-simple-life-plain-living-and-high-thinking-in-american-culture-9780820329758","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}