The Bones of the Earth

By Howard Mansfield

Book Overview

The Bones of The Earth is a book about landmarks, but of the oldest kind--sticks and stones. For millennia this is all there was: sticks and stones, dirt and trees, animals and people, the sky by day and night. The Lord spoke through burning bushes, through lightning and oaks. Trees and rocks and water were holy. They are commodities today and that is part of our disquiet.

Howard Mansfield explores the loss of cultural memory, asking: What is the past? How do we construct that past? Is it possible to preserve the past as a vital force for the future? He writes eloquently on the land and time, on how to be a tourist of the near-at-hand, and on the forces that try to topple us. From the author of In the Memory House, which The New York Times Book Review called wise and beautiful, and The Same Ax, Twice comes The Bones of The Earth, a stunning call for reinventing our view of the future.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159376040X
• ISBN13: 9781593760403
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Treasure of Stories

The Bones of the Earth is a treasure of historical stories unique to New England that could be lost without writers like Howard Mansfield to keep them alive. His thoughtful account of traditions, landmarks and history reminds us all to document our own stories for future generations. Mansfield's humor and sense of irony in showing the strange contrasts we often don't see makes this a delightful book to read.

This is a great book

Howard Mansfield's The Bones of the Earth will make you see your surroundings in a whole different way. At a time that much of humankind stands at the verge of forgetting who and where we are, this book reminds us to honor the oldest landmarks, the sticks and stones by which we know home.