Book review: A world-ending Fire – The essential Wendell Berry

The material in A world-ending Fire spans over five decades comprising some of the finest essays Wendell Berry wrote between 1968 until 2011.

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In this masterpiece, Wendell, a seasoned academic and prolific author, puts together thought-provoking essays ranging from man’s interaction with nature, agrarian systems, the role of local culture, technology, motherhood, and feminism among others.

In 'The Work of Local Culture', Wendell highlights the essence of upholding local norms, values, and practices. Culture, he writes, preserves the map and the records of past journeys so that no generation will destroy the route. He observes that 'a break in society has been due to break in the local succession of the generations. And that every time there's a break in succession, chaos ensues.' In an age where Africans have been alienated at the hands of neocolonialism and globalization, this is a resounding admonition. Wendell further asserts that a break in society has been due to a break in the local succession of the generations. Perhaps this speaks volumes to the succession problem in African society - starting with the smallest unit of society, the family.

Wendell speaks on the limitations of man’s sapience and wisdom in a 1974 essay, Damage, where he says, "no expert knows everything about every place, not even everything about any place." In the same essay, Wendell marries some of his strongly held notions when he writes, 'a man with a machine and inadequate culture is a pestilence.  He shakes more than he can hold.'

The book is replete with memorable, pithy monitions for instance this quote from Word and flesh: "The great obstacle to change is this: the conviction that we cannot change because we are dependent on what is wrong. But this is the addict’s excuse, and we know it will not do."

He spares a word for some of his detractors in 'Why I Am Not Going to Buy a computer', where much as he acknowledges the profound role technology plays in human progress, he also warns of the ills of unchecked technological advancement on the environment and society.

And in 'A Few Words on Motherhood' he emphasizes the role women and particularly mothers play in societal construction and upholding of the social fabric. In a world full of single parents, Wendell advises still that 'children need an ordinary association with both parents.' That the role of raising children is too grand to be left to one person.

By and large, this book is a prophetic masterpiece on imminent climatic chaos if we don’t quickly reconsider our relationship to our environment, the ticking timebomb of unchecked capitalistic creations in technology, consumerism, and the essence of culture in a society’s transformation.