Villages

by Richard Critchfield

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385183755
• ISBN13: 9780385183758
• Release Date: March 1983
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A new look at the human majority

This is an absolutely remarkable book. _Villages_ gave me a greater appreciation than anything else I have ever read for how the majority of the human race lives. This book is the high point in Richard Critchfield's long effort to understand other cultures. He received one of the first MacArthur foundation "genius" fellowships soon after it was published. After serving as a correspondent during the Vietnam War, Critchfield spent many years living and working in Third World villages. He joined the local people in their fields, ate and drank what they did, and over the months he would learn enough of the language to communicate. Over more than two decades he returned to the same score of villages scattered across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. He made many friendships that lasted over the years and was able to see how life changed for the village families. In the first half of the book, each chapter focuses on a village or a pair of villages in a different country. The second part of the book looks at various aspects of village life across cultures and tries to develop a view of a global village way of life. Critchfield's experience led him to value tradition, family, and religion. _Villages_ celebrates the resiliency of the cultures he found. It is a very optimistic book and helps one imagine that life in a village can be good if it is what you know. His last book, _The Villagers_ which updates the story is much less hopeful as he began to fear that global markets would destroy the village roots of civilizations. Besides these two books, I would also recommend _Shahhat: An Egyptian_ which follows one young man in a village near the Valley of the Kings.