Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture
"The world is moving towards a tougher period, when the relative ease and luxury we've known will be tested. But that test can deepen our family and community lives, as Shannon Hayes shows, providing more of us-of both genders-become homemakers."--Bill McKibben, author ofEarth: Making a Life on a Tough New PlanetandDeep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future"Imagine women with masters degrees and PhDs who choose home over career advancement. Imagine wives (and husbands) who reject the false promise of endless paid labor to tend gardens and children and friendships. In a time when Wall Street MBAs-producing nothing of value but rewarded with million-dollar bonuses and blinded by greed-have driven our country to bankruptcy and despair, Shannon Hayes' stories of women and men who choose simplicity, authenticity and community inspire hope. Outside the boxes of both conservatives and liberals, this book is radical thinking at its best. Read it and think."--John de Graaf, coauthor ofAffluenzaand director of Take Back Your Time"Brilliant, visionary, and practical. This is a mind-bending book that will forever change your view of human possibility and compel you to rethink your life. My highest recommendation."--David Korten, author ofAgenda for a New EconomyandThe Great Turning, and board chair ofYES!magazine"Shannon Hayes retrieves the word "homemaker" from being a sort of quaint, yellowing doily laid in the sideboard, along with frugality and simplicity, and shows how radical, indeed, it is to take responsibility for the health of your family, community and world by raising wonderful food, wonderful kids and a wonderful ruckus in the face of injustice or greed. She and her husband had the courage to 'do the math' and see that a double-income life was not worth living (and was barely worth the money). They also had, as most radical homemakers do, the canny ability to question the standard assumptions about the good life . . . they could develop the skills, patience, and community connections of homemaking while keeping their minds sharp and their lives relevant. At a time when many of the pillars of our security are wobbly-the economy, oil and water and mineral supplies, climate predictability-I predict thatRadical Homemakerswill become a bible for those seeking to make their lives more manageable, safe, and deeply fulfilling."--Vicki Robin, coauthor ofYour Money or Your Lifeand host of yourmoneyoryourlife.info"The real 4-Hour Workweek. Reclaim and upgrade your life with this urgently needed work from the integrity-driven soul of Shannon Hayes. No lives of quiet desperation here: rejecting outmoded, inauthentic and toxic societal practices, Shannon and her peers do nothing less than redesign the work-life-success paradigm. Breathtaking, scholarly, passionate and inspiring."--Holly Hickman, Radical Homemaker, former Fox News Radio reporter and creator of SustainableSuppers.com