Scott Nearing (1883 – 1983) was an American radical economist, educator, writer, political activist, and advocate of simple living. Teaching economics and sociology at the Wharton School and Swarthmore College and authoring a stream of books on economics and social problems, Nearing believed that unfettered wealth stifled initiative and impeded economic advancement, and hoped that progressive thinkers among the ownership class itself would come to realize the negative impact of economic parasitism and accept their civic duty of enlightened leadership. Nearing's aggressive social activism in the classroom and through the printed word brought him into conflict with his own employers at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, resulting in his dismissal and his emergence as a cause célèbre of the American radical movement for the next decade.A consistent pacifist, Nearing opposed U. S. aprticipation in both World Wars.
In 1954 he co-authored Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World with his second wife, Helen. The book, in which war, famine, and poverty were discussed, described a nineteen-year "back to the land experiment", and also advocated a modern day "homesteading".
As the Vietnam War took center stage in the mid-1960s, and as a large back-to-the-land movement developed in the U.S., a renewed interest in Nearing's work and ideas occurred. Hundreds of anti-war believers flocked to Nearing's home in Maine to learn homesteading practical-living skills, some also to hear a master radical's anti-war message.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Nearing
This study is one of a series, including Where is civilization going? and The twilight of empire.--Pref
Bibliography: p. 273-285
