When Less Was More: Memories of a Sustainable Lifestyle

The past is brought back as people of older generations share stories about the sustainable lifestyles that were common when they were young. These stories reveal a global experience, from as near as Brooklyn to as far as China, from Italy, Ghana, Kazakhstan, and France to Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. Most of the chapters of this book are individual life histories collected by students in sociology and anthropology classes taught by the editors at the College of Staten Island and Westchester Community College. Thanks to the ethnic diversity of the New York metropolitan region, stories from all over the world emerged when students were assigned to interview their own family elders and friends. In the interviews, elders remembered that the relatively low consumption, low waste lifestyles of their younger days were very satisfying. Many of them were keen to tell today’s youth that it is not possessions that determine the good life, but community and relationships.