A bold and brilliant new collection of essays by one of our most important writers of life in America today This new collection gathers together for the first time sixteen essays by one of our most revered chroniclers of life in America, a landmark commentary on family, faith, community, and the threats of modernization. Ranging from the devastating effects of war on children to the endless problems of industrialism and the ubiquitous need for connection and community, Dispatches From Rural America captures a country isolated from its land and beginnings, too focused on mass production and output, and perilously estranged from the spiritual centers that make up the foundation of our lives.  On the cusp of the fiftieth anniversary of Berry’s seminal book The Unsettling of America , Dispatches From Rural America is urgent and vital reading in this time of political chaos from one of our most important writers.