Twenty Acres: A Seventies Childhood in the Woods
Sarah Neidhardt
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
"A memoir infused with both empathy and inquiry."
--Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature
"Twenty Acres is an engaging, thoughtful memoir of growing up in an off-the-grid cabin as part of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement. Sarah Neidhardt captures her subject beautifully and offers a compelling portrait of a highly specific, historically significant time and place."--Kate Daloz, author of We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America Sarah Neidhardt grew up in the woods. When she was an infant, her parents left behind comfortable, urbane lives to take part in the back-to-the-land movement. They moved their young family to an isolated piece of land deep in the Arkansas Ozarks where they built a cabin, grew crops, and strove for eight years to live self-sufficiently. In this vivid memoir Neidhardt explores her childhood in wider familial and social contexts. Drawing upon a trove of family letters and other archival material, she follows her parents' journey from privilege to food stamps--from their formative youths, to their embrace of pioneer homemaking and rural poverty, to their sudden and wrenching return to conventional society--and explores the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s as it was, and as she lived it. A story of strangers in a strange land, of class, marriage, and family in a changing world, Twenty Acres: A Seventies Childhood in the Woods is part childhood idyll, part cautionary tale. Sarah Neidhardt reveals the treasures and tolls of unconventional, pastoral lives, and her insightful reflections offer a fresh perspective on what it means to aspire to pre-industrial lifestyles in a modern world.
Product Details
Price
$29.95
Publisher
University of Arkansas Press
Publish Date
March 07, 2023
Pages
320
Dimensions
6.0 X 9.0 X 0.68 inches | 0.98 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781682262276
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About the Author
Sarah Neidhardt has worked as a bookseller, secretary, paralegal, copyeditor, and stay-at-home mother. She grew up in Arkansas and Northern California and now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and teenage son. She is a graduate of Oberlin College.
Reviews
"Twenty Acres is an engaging, thoughtful memoir of growing up in an off-the-grid cabin as part of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement. Sarah Neidhardt captures her subject beautifully and offers a compelling portrait of a highly specific, historically significant time and place."
--Kate Daloz, author of We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America
"At turns poetic, shocking, terrifying, and nostalgic--and always riveting and real as dirt--Sarah Neidhardt's meticulously researched memoir gives voice to a generation of back-to-the-landers' children and to this hidden history of American family life."
--Ariel Gore, author of The Wayward Writer: Summon Your Power to Take Back Your Story, Liberate Yourself from Capitalism, and Publish Like a Superstar
"Twenty Acres is authentic, clear, and evocative . . . a superb book."
--David Orr, author of Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward
"Weaving together extraordinary research and memories with gorgeously rendered prose, Neidhardt captures the zeitgeist of the back-to-the-land movement in the story of her family's years in the Ozarks. Equal parts memoir and ethnography, Twenty Acres is lush, haunting, and ultimately elegiac."
--Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home
"Disillusioned with the modern world and idealistic about living closer to nature, Sarah Neidhardt's parents packed up from Colorado--a place that some other back-to-landers would seek out--and moved to small, isolated Fox, Arkansas to attempt living completely self-sufficiently and off-the-grid. In this memoir, Neidhardt examines her memories from that time, and also pinpoints one of the most particularly problematic parts of the back-to-the-land movement, which is that many of its participants were anchored in privilege. ... A memoir infused with both empathy and inquiry."
--Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature
"Twenty Acres is a sensitive, thoughtful, honest book full of details that give this period in the author's life solidity. ... Her book is a gift that shows how her 'back to the land' experience unfolded and what was gained or lost as a result. If you are interested in this period and the folks who sought a way of living that was more sustainable (before the term became commonplace), then this is worthwhile. The writing is clear, shorn of cliches and her voice is kind, showing compassion over judgment."
--Louise Halsey, Fort Smith Historical Society Journal, October 2023
"For those who are granola right down to their toes (and those who survived parents like that). The memoir Twenty Acres from Colorado-born author Sarah Neidhardt recounts her family's move from Colorado Springs to the isolated wilds of the Arkansas Ozarks, where they pioneered a homestead in bohemian counterculture style. Whether you lived in a yurt or just had to trade chocolate for carob now and then, any child of the '70s will recognize themselves in this book."
--Teague Bohlen, Westworld, "Colorado Books for Holiday Gift Giving"
"Dotted with delightful photos and memorable anecdotes, Twenty Acres is a captivating look at one family's journey into an 'off-the-grid' lifestyle and their jarring return to conventional society."
--Michelle Kicherer, Willamette Week, January 2023
--Kate Daloz, author of We Are As Gods: Back to the Land in the 1970s on the Quest for a New America
"At turns poetic, shocking, terrifying, and nostalgic--and always riveting and real as dirt--Sarah Neidhardt's meticulously researched memoir gives voice to a generation of back-to-the-landers' children and to this hidden history of American family life."
--Ariel Gore, author of The Wayward Writer: Summon Your Power to Take Back Your Story, Liberate Yourself from Capitalism, and Publish Like a Superstar
"Twenty Acres is authentic, clear, and evocative . . . a superb book."
--David Orr, author of Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward
"Weaving together extraordinary research and memories with gorgeously rendered prose, Neidhardt captures the zeitgeist of the back-to-the-land movement in the story of her family's years in the Ozarks. Equal parts memoir and ethnography, Twenty Acres is lush, haunting, and ultimately elegiac."
--Megan Kruse, author of Call Me Home
"Disillusioned with the modern world and idealistic about living closer to nature, Sarah Neidhardt's parents packed up from Colorado--a place that some other back-to-landers would seek out--and moved to small, isolated Fox, Arkansas to attempt living completely self-sufficiently and off-the-grid. In this memoir, Neidhardt examines her memories from that time, and also pinpoints one of the most particularly problematic parts of the back-to-the-land movement, which is that many of its participants were anchored in privilege. ... A memoir infused with both empathy and inquiry."
--Wendy J. Fox, Electric Literature
"Twenty Acres is a sensitive, thoughtful, honest book full of details that give this period in the author's life solidity. ... Her book is a gift that shows how her 'back to the land' experience unfolded and what was gained or lost as a result. If you are interested in this period and the folks who sought a way of living that was more sustainable (before the term became commonplace), then this is worthwhile. The writing is clear, shorn of cliches and her voice is kind, showing compassion over judgment."
--Louise Halsey, Fort Smith Historical Society Journal, October 2023
"For those who are granola right down to their toes (and those who survived parents like that). The memoir Twenty Acres from Colorado-born author Sarah Neidhardt recounts her family's move from Colorado Springs to the isolated wilds of the Arkansas Ozarks, where they pioneered a homestead in bohemian counterculture style. Whether you lived in a yurt or just had to trade chocolate for carob now and then, any child of the '70s will recognize themselves in this book."
--Teague Bohlen, Westworld, "Colorado Books for Holiday Gift Giving"
"Dotted with delightful photos and memorable anecdotes, Twenty Acres is a captivating look at one family's journey into an 'off-the-grid' lifestyle and their jarring return to conventional society."
--Michelle Kicherer, Willamette Week, January 2023
