World Made by Hand 1-4 (World Made by Hand, The Witch of Hebron, A History of the Future, The Harrows of Spring) - James Howard Kunstler

Written by James Howard Kunstler
Read by Jim Meskimen
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 42h 17m

Book 1 ● World Made by Hand ● 9:40

For the townspeople of Union Grove, New York, the future is not what they thought it would be. Transportation is slow and dangerous, so food is grown locally at great expense of time and energy. And the outside world is largely unknown. There may be a president and he may be in Minneapolis now, but people aren’t sure. As the heat of summer intensifies, the residents struggle with the new way of life in a world of abandoned highways and empty houses, horses working the fields and rivers replenished with fish. A captivating, utterly realistic novel, ‘World Made by Hand’ takes speculative fiction beyond the apocalypse and shows what happens when life gets extremely local.

Book 2 ● The Witch of Hebron ● 10:15

In the sequel to his novel, ‘World Made by Hand’, Kunstler expands on his vision of a post-oil society with a new novel about an America in which the electricity has flickered off, the Internet is a distant memory, and the government is little more than a rumour. In the tiny hamlet of Union Grove, New York, travel is horse-drawn and farming is back at the center of life. But it’s no pastoral haven. Wars are fought over dwindling resources and illness is a constant presence. Bandits roam the countryside, preying on the weak. And a sinister cult threatens to shatter Union Grove’s fragile stability. In a book that is both shocking yet eerily convincing, Kunstler seamlessly weaves hot-button issues such as the decline of oil and the perils of climate change into a compelling narrative of violence, religious hysteria, innocence lost, and love found.

Book 3 ● A History of the Future ● 11:49

A ‘History of the Future’ is the third thrilling novel in Kunstler’s “World Made By Hand” series, an exploration of family and morality as played out in the small town of Union Grove. Following the catastrophes of the 21st century — the pandemics, the environmental disaster, the end of oil, the ensuing chaos—people are doing whatever they can to get by and pursuing a simpler and sometimes happier existence. In little Union Grove in upstate New York, the townspeople are preparing for Christmas. Without the consumerist shopping frenzy that dogged the holidays of the previous age, the season has become a time to focus on family and loved ones. It is a stormy Christmas Eve when Robert Earle’s son Daniel arrives back from his two years of sojourning throughout what is left of the United States. He collapses from exhaustion and illness, but as he recovers tells the story of the break-up of the nation into three uneasy independent regions and his journey into the dark heart of the New Foxfire Republic centered in Tennessee and led by the female evangelical despot, Loving Morrow. In the background, Union Grove has been shocked by the Christmas Eve double murder by a young mother, in the throes of illness, of her husband and infant son. Town magistrate Stephen Bullock is in a hanging mood. A ‘History of the Future’ is attention-grabbing and provocative, but also lyrical, tender, and comic — a vision of a future of America that is becoming more and more convincing and perhaps even desirable with each passing day.

Book 4 ● The Harrows of Spring ● 10:32

From renowned social critic, energy expert, and bestselling author James Howard Kunstler, ‘The Harrows of Spring’ is a moving and gripping novel that completes the story of the quaint upstate New York town of Union Grove, thrown into a future world that in many ways resembles the nineteenth century. In Union Grove, early spring is a challenging season, known as the “six weeks want,” a time when fresh food is scarce and the winter stores are dwindling. The town is struggling in particular this year as the Hudson River trade route to Albany has been halted by the local plantation tycoon Stephen Bullock, who has deemed it too resource-intensive and is now striving for self-sufficiency. Meanwhile, after returning from his travels around what is left of the United States, Daniel Earle is intent on resurrecting a newspaper for the community, and finds an interesting story to cover when representatives of a group of anti-establishment, hyper-liberals known as the Berkshire People’s Republic arrive in the town. The thrilling conclusion to Kunstler’s beloved series, ‘The Harrows of Spring’ is a powerful, moving tale of insurrection, survival, and what it means to be human.