Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Revised edition) - Softcover

Elgin, Duane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0688121195 ISBN 13: 9780688121198

Publisher: Quill (William Morrow), 1998

Synopsis

When Voluntary Simplicity was first published in 1981, it quickly became recognized as a powerful and visionary work in the emerging dialogue over sustainable ways of living. Now, more than ten years later and with many of the planet's environmental stresses having become more urgent than ever, Duane Elgin has revised and updated his revolutionary book.

Voluntary Simplicity is not a book about living in poverty; it is a book about living with balance. It illuminates the pattern of changes that an increasing number of Americans are making in their everyday lives -- adjustments in day-to-day living that are an active, positive response to the complex dilemmas of our time. By embracing, either partially or totally, the tenets of voluntary simplicity -- frugal consumption, ecological awareness, and personal growth -- people can change their lives. And in the process, they have the power to change the world. First published in 1981, Voluntary Simplicity was instantly recognized as a visionary work. The New York Times called it "seminal"; the Wall Street Journal noted that it was "considered the movement's Bible." Revised in 1993 to address the trend toward downshifting, this pertinent book helps us to adjust our thoughts, habits, and goals and embrace the key elements of simplicity: frugal consumption, ecological awareness and personal growth.

About this title

Review

Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin, first published in 1981 and revised in 1993, is the sacred text for those wanting to liberate themselves from enslavement to a job and the pursuit of status symbols. Elgin's work emerges from a concern for the environmental consequences of our mass consumption lifestyles. His book exhorts us to save the planet and our souls by "living with balance in order to find a life of greater purpose."

From the Back Cover

A passionate and wide-ranging book that demonstrates the elegance of simplicity . . . It is a manifesto for the only kind of future that promises sanity and the possibility of contentment. Bread and wine for the spirit. Sam Keen, author of Fire in the Belly.

A copy of this book in every American household could change the course of history. . . .Voluntary Simplicity shows that what this nation needs is not so much a change of policy as a change of mind, and that individual citizens, acting on their own, can do more to solve our crisis than can any national administration. George Leonard, author of The Transformation

About this edition

• Publisher: Quill (William Morrow)
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0688121195
• ISBN 13: 9780688121198
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240