Download or read book In Search of the Simple Life written by David E. Shi and published by Gibbs Smith Publishers. This book was released on 1986 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since colonial days Americans have greatly admired, variously defined, and occasionally practiced the simple life. In doing so they have provided a significant shaping force in the history of American values. Though quickly displaced by the cult of more and more, the simple life has remained an elevated ideal for a resolute few. For some it has meant a life of pious austerity; for others it has entailed conscientious consumption and aesthetic creation; for a few it has resulted in withdrawal from the larger society. Yet whatever form of simplicity has been adopted, those promoting the ideal have been animated by the same common purpose: to subordinate material desires to 'higher' activities. This richly illustrated anthology presents a fascinating and compelling array of original writings, woven together with Shi's illuminating commentary. -- publisher.