Reclaiming the Commons

Yale Agrarian Studies Series

by Brian Donahue

This book is a lively account of a community working to combat suburban sprawl and discover how to live responsibly on the land. A founder of the Land's Sake community farm in Weston, Massachusetts, Brian Donahue describes the joys and sorrows of farming in the suburbs. He calls for every community to protect its common land, establish community farms, and engage citizens with the land on which they live.

Genres: Agriculture, Nonfiction, Environment, Sustainability, Nature

Hardcover

First published August 11, 1999

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ooooh I'm a sucker for a local Massachusetts environmental history that develops into a manifesto for land reform, tinted with 1990's reformist-yet-anticapitalist politics. This is a lovely look at the history of farms and forests in what's now suburban Boston, intertwined with some memoir about his work on Green Power and Land's Sake farms in Weston, Mass. I do wish Donahue had looked more closely at the class aspects at play in land use.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of great stuff here. He explains the history of land use in New England going back to the Native Americans, his personal attempts at transitioning to more sustainable cultivation and forestry techniques, the flaws with the popular myths touted by mainstream environmentalists, how he's been trying to influence the next generation to pursue more outdoorsy professions and connect to their bioregions, and he asks all the right questions about how we can transition out of this mess of an economic system. Ultimately though, his answers to those questions and his conclusions aren't very inspiring. This was written like 15 years ago so I wasn't too surprised with how much he compromises with the status quo. Even now there still aren't many people willing to say that what we can realistically expect the majority to support isn't going to be good enough.

[Ivy]

This is actually a book about the farm I worked on outside of Boston, written by a 20-year Board member who is a professor of environmental studies at Brandeis. It is quite fascinating to see how they experimented to get the farm where it is now. A very grassroots effort,in a very privileged New England town/suburb. My job was primiarily in researching and preserving the various varieties of historic crabapples and other ornamental trees left over from when the farm was part of the research arboretum of Harvard University. again: fascinating!

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book, but probably because I live in Weston where the book is set. So many lessons learned from Mr. Donahue, so many good paths forward in conservation--though few have been taken and this book is 20 years old. Brian Donahue is one of the titans of nature conservation and community agriculture--just heard him speak about forestry yesterday. Great sense of humor and fun characters including Chocolate the sheep and Hercules the mule.

[Tana · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We demand that land be either cheaply used, expensively manicured, or utterly untrammeled in order to fulfill separate functions." Brian Donahue outlines a vision of a more holistic view and way of working the land, especially in suburbs, in this book. Many of the things he says are still surprisingly relevant even 20-some years later.

[Mere · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian Donahue makes a good case for the importance of community mindedness in the local and sustainable agriculture movement. Too often homesteading or subsistence farming is presented as a solution for combatting the woes of modern life, but these are inherently individualistic responses to a common problem. Donahue argues for a reinvestment in the commons as a way to foster lifelong interest in the ecology, economy and general welfare of rural and semi-rural places.

For those looking for a shorter read, I recommend reading chapters one and six. This will give you an idea of Donahue's argument and premise without having to get into details on sheep farming, sustainable forestry, etc, as the bulk of the book is dedicated to describing the different activities of a community farm in Weston, MA. I found this content interesting and was especially admiring of Donahue's end-of-chapter analysis where he breaks down each activity in terms of ecology, economy, education and esthetics.

[Du · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, the personal aspect of the book was nice, but the overall the book wasn't as alluring as I had hoped. The general premise and the message of conservation, being locally minded and respecting nature are all good ones, so there is a lot of value in the book, it just didn't keep me interested through the whole read.

[Kristymiller320 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, I did not have the chance to finish this book. It was very interesting and informative, maybe a little too detailed. Continued to support my interest in community farming/growing and buying local food. Especially relevant because we are living in New England right now.