Back to the Land

Introduction

As a young man at the University of Michigan, I attended the Residential College. My major was History of Ideas. A graduation requirement was to do a thesis on a relevant topic. I chose the Back to the Land Movement. This interest flowed not from my experiences but from my fantasy. As a person raised in a small city adjacent to Detroit, I found the view confining and was searching for my own goals and place in life that would lie elsewhere in geography and values. In 1970 I picked up my first copy of the Mother Earth News. It was issue one. I came across it very recently while reorganizing some boxes in my basement, containing artifacts of my past. Along with that were some copies of comments and grades on the project by my professors. I have kept the actual thesis in a place of honor for some time in my library, but it has never been shared beyond occasionally pointing it out to my family.

Now that we have the World Wide Web, and I possess the technology and a site, I thought it would be interesting to post this work for others to see, and hopefully learn from and enjoy.

So I have dissembled my loosely bound copy, fed it through my Multifunction printer in sections, and present it to you.

Feel free to share it with others, link to it, and perhaps help me find the subjects. A follow up might be rather interesting, and I would be delighted to consider posting it here.

As to me and my utopian dreams. Well, I never went back to the land. But I did expand my horizons. Concurrent with my degree, I was completing my premed courses. During college I thought I would become a country doctor. During medical school I found myself drawn to Psychiatry and upon graduating medical school, went west to Seattle, first drawn by its natural beauty and since 1978 calling it home. In 1985 I began a business performing medical assessments. I am married, with 4 children.

Brian L. Grant, MD
1200 6th Avenue, Suite 1800
Seattle, WA 98101

206 4473449, fax 206 2871908
bgrant@mcn.com

Contents

  1. Cover page and Original Table of Contents
  2. Introduction

Section 1: Interviews

  1. Dave Moorlay
  2. Sue Kingsley
  3. Roger Staples
  4. George Nash and Dai Keppel
  5. Hank Glass
  6. John and Kim Beard
  7. Eric and Jacquie Thurston
  8. John Dahlbeck
  9. John and Pat Robinson
  10. Dave and June Murray
  11. Steve and Ursula Powers
  12. Bill and Myra Fuller

Section 2

  1. What is the Back to the Land Movement
  2. Why they Left
  3. A Short Primer on How to Get Back to the Land
  4. Bibliography

Photographs

  1. Roger Staples at home
  2. Sue Kingsley
  3. Roger at work building sap-house
  4. George Nash and Dai Keppel
  5. Animals are important on George and Dai's farm
  6. This faithful Ashley wood heater is great to warm up under
  7. Kim and John Beard
  8. John Dahlbeck
  9. Eric and Jacquie Thurston
  10. Dave and June Murray
  11. Steve, Ursula and Adam Powers
  12. Myra, Bill and Zeb Fuller
  13. The wood pile must be cut well in advance of the cold (Brian Grant pictured long in an earlier time)
  14. Comment on the thesis by Marilyn Young, professor at the University of Michigan

All Contents © 2005 Brian Grant. All Rights Reserved. Content may not be reproduced, downloaded, disseminated, published, or transferred in any form or by any means, except with the prior written permission of Brian Grant.