PRELUDE Xlil 



swer is whether the way of life described in this book 

 is a way out for a population evidently unhappy both 

 in the city and in the country. Those who are inter- 

 ested in this question, and those who are considering 

 such a way of living, may find in this volume an an- 

 swer to many of the problems which perplex them in 

 connection with it. Those who are interested in the 

 broader implications of the Borsodi family's quest of 

 comfort in a civilization evidently intolerably un- 

 comfortable will find them fully discussed in This 

 Ugly Civilization. 



We are living in one of the most interesting periods 

 in the world's history. Industrial civilization is either 

 on the verge of collapse or of rebirth on a new social 

 basis. Men and women who desire to escape from de- 

 pendence upon the present industrial system and who 

 have no desire to substitute for it dependence upon a 

 state controlled system, are beginning to experiment 

 with a way of living which is neither city life nor 

 farm life, but which is an effort to combine the ad- 

 vantages and to escape the disadvantages of both. Re- 

 ports of the Department of Agriculture call attention 

 to the revival of handicraft industries the making 

 of rugs and other textiles, furniture, baskets and pot- 

 tery for sale along the roads, in near-by farmers' 

 markets, or for barter for other products for the farm 

 and home. Farmers, according to the Bureau of Home 

 Economics, are turning back to custom milling of 



