On Gandhi's Path
Bob Swann's Work for Peace and Community Economics
By Stephanie Mills
(New Society Publishers, Paperback, 9780865716155, 160pp.)
Publication Date: May 2010
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook
Categories: Peace, Personal Memoirs, United States - 21st Century
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Bigger has turned out not to be better. Servicing the global economy has exacted a heavy toll in the erosion of our communities and the destruction of our environment. Increasingly, we are coming to realize that the way forward looks a lot like the way back—back to strong local economies; back to resilient, tight-knit communities; back to the land and work that is real.
As we chart our course through these uncertain times, we are hungry for inspiration. Robert Swann was a self-taught economist, a tireless champion of decentralism, and the father of the relocalization movement. A conscientious war resistor imprisoned for his beliefs, Bob Swann engaged in lifelong nonviolent direct action against war, racism, and economic inequity. His legacy is a vision of a life-affirming, alternative economy of peace founded on innovations in land and monetary reform.
Swann’s story is also the untold history of decentralism in the United States. He associated with a constellation of vital, intelligent, independent authors and activists, and ultimately co-founded the Schumacher Society based on the philosophies of Small Is Beautiful author E. F. Schumacher.
Swann forged tools to build productive, resilient local and regional economies. Now as global industrial civilization flails in the throes of ecological and economic crisis, Swann’s working innovations are at the ready to help neighborhoods, local entrepreneurs, and willing communities rebuild at appropriate scales.
Stephanie Mills is an author, teacher, practicing bioregionalist, and fellow of the Post-Carbon Institute. She has written numerous books, including Whatever Happened to Ecology?
Stephanie Mills is an author, teacher, bioregionalist and Fellow of the Post -Carbon Institute. She has written numerous books, including In Praise of Nature and Turning Away From Technology. Stephanie lives in Maple City, Michigan.
A bioregional-minded reader will gain a great deal from this book. For one thing, self-reliance and ecological living are crucially joined together, and Swann exhibited a high degree of devotion to addressing this point. This is a practical guide to more than just survival. It is a prescription for betterment. -Planet Drum Pulse
Author Stephanie Mills brings the life of peace activist, self-taught economist and bioregionalist Bob Swann into vivid focus. Counting both Mills and Swann as friends and colleagues over the years, I was enthralled with this book and the important lessons for all in Bob Swann’s example of deeply-committed global citizenship. Stephanie Mills’ books not only enlighten us, but are complementary to her own committed activism as a preeminent ecologist, bioregionalist and practitioner of local economies, alternative currencies, simpler lifestyles. These are many of the tools we are re-discovering to help us adjust to conditions in a resource-constrained world, including deepening our spiritual and community commitments. - Hazel Henderson, Ethical Markets
Stephanie Mills has described Bob Swann’s life with eloquence, elegance and profoundness and as a result, the book is deeply engaging and enchanting. On Gandhi’s Path is a lucid narrative of the life of Bob Swann who was a living example of simplicity, humility and radicalism. This is a book which describes how a man offered himself to serve the people and the planet selflessly. This book is a good guide to all activists who are working to transform the world.
- Satish Kumar, editor, Resurgence Magazine and Visiting Fellow at Schumacher College
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