An interesting read which offers something new from an oft-overlooked source

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	• Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy Lyle Estill New Society Publishers, 2008 - 240 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An interesting read which offers something new from an oft-overlooked source - the past.

Globalization is becoming more and more the name of the game in recent years, but is it really needed? "Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy" is a look why smaller economies are still viable in the modern world. Focusing on self-sufficient towns and cities that produce almost everything they need on their own, and how such locations improve their own economies while importing very little from the outside, "Small Is Possible" is an interesting read which offers something new from an oft-overlooked source - the past.

After reading "Collapse", read this!

It is easy to be overwhelmed with the doom and gloom consequences of American's thoroughly unsustainable lifestyle: climate change, pollution of air, water, and soil, declining ecosystems, and the very real risk that in 60 years, nobody will be living what we today consider to be a first-world lifestyle. What to do?

For starters, read Lyle Estill's Small Is Possible, a wonderful collection of writings that chronicles Lyle's own shift from get-setting deal-maker to homesteading community-builder.

Lyle's writing style is excellent: concrete, humorous, and often self-deprecating, Lyle's stories spring to life from the pages, and then linger in details which keeps the community and its members, not Lyle himself, in the foreground.

This book variously strikes me as: non-fiction Huckleberry Finn, a North Carolinian Omnivore's Dilemma, a contemporary Guns, Germs, and Steel, and The Tipping Point as played by actors in Chatham County.

Let me say again: the book is very well written, the material is extremely compelling and relevant to the 21st century, and, in the great tradition of open source software (which Lyle himself acknowledges), it is designed to be a resource for others who believe that small is possible.

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Small is Possible - I will strive for big

I need to first point out my conflict of interest in this review. lyle is my brother.

He calls this a non-fiction book and I am sure it is but it is unlike the other non-fiction books that I read. I would call it more of a storybook and Lyle is a great story teller.

It is a story about Lyle's life in a small town and the characters in that town.

In the book he did mention me:

"He (that would be me) is an insatiable entrepreneur who insists he be measured not by the vast pile of bad ideas, heaped at the bottom of the wall - but rather by those ideas that stuck. As a risk-taker he has figured out a way to stay in the possible, and not dwell on those ventures that stung him."

At one point he talked about his blogging and how he was finding it difficult to come up with topics and someone suggested that he needs to entertain people. I found his book very entertaining and this is something that I should probably consider more in my blogging.

I love the book and found it easy and quick to read. Lyle is a great writer (and always has been).

I don't agree with everything in the book. I think supporting small just for the sake of supporting small has some flaws. His book lays out many reasons why small can be better value. And if it is better value - then clearly I support it.

Although small is possible, I am going to strive for big. I wonder if Lyle will still like me?

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Biography of a Small Community

I had originally grabbed this book from the local library "new books" shelving thinking that anything with small in the title might be worth my time... and some relevance to www.small-house-building.com. Lyle Estill does talk about housing, and his attempt to foster a real estate development that focused more on offering a chance for people to build their own affordable housing. They named their development "Abeyance" and had a vision of attracting young families with children that would play in the woods and migrate from household to household in their play time. They even offered a covenant with NO minimum square footage. For awhile it worked, but over the years it devolved into the usual neighborly squabbles as families grew up and ownerships changed. It would be interesting to see it today.

"Small is Possible" is an example of all the local economic and social interaction in Mr. Estill's Chatham County, NC. You could almost look at it as a biography of a community that has succeeded in building that elusive sense of community, but displays all the warts along the way. Surely not a smooth process, but one with great rewards. As Lyle says "forget homeland security... we need homeTOWN security". Keep your dollars, time, and energy in your local economy... what better way to build local security?

Also check out Lyle Estill's Energy Blog at Piedmont Biofuels for his latest essays. A good read!

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Very interesting, well written...

I just finished the book and found it very interesting and well written. As a reporter for a small weekly newspaper that covers Pittsboro, NC, I was fascinated to learn more about the many personalities, businesses and organizations that make up this small town. I certainly see Pittsboro as a more dynamic and exciting place through Lyle Estill's eyes. I initially had low expectations of the book since I thought it would just be a compilation of essays, blog entries and newspaper columns, but it contained about 98 percent original writing. I have been telling many people around town about the book as a great way to learn more about Pittsboro. I think the book will be popular on a national scale since it talks about many ways that communities, and individuals, can be more self sustaining and this is an important issue nationally. On another level, it is interesting as the story of an entrepreneur who had the courage to renounce a very high-paying conventional job to pursue his dream.

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reviews: page 1, 2

In an era when incomprehensibly complex issues like Peak Oil and climate change dominate headlines, practical solutions at a local level can seem somehow inadequate.

In response, Lyle Estill's Small is Possible introduces us to "hometown security," with this chronicle of a community-powered response to resource depletion in a fickle global economy. True stories, springing from the soils of Chatham County, North Carolina, offer a positive counterbalance to the bleakness of our age.

This is the story of how one small southern US town found actual solutions to actual problems. Unwilling to rely on the government and wary of large corporations, these residents discovered it is possible for a community to feed itself, fuel itself, heal itself, and govern itself.

This book is filled with newspaper columns, blog entries, letters, and essays that have appeared on the margins of small-town economies. Tough subjects are handled with humor and finesse. Compelling stories of successful small businesses, from the grocery co-op to the biodiesel co-op, describe a town and its people on a genuine quest for sustainability.

Everyone interested in sustainability, local economy, small business, and whole foods will be inspired by the success stories in this book.

Lyle Estill is "Vice President of Stuff " at Piedmont Biofuels, and has won numerous awards for his work in the biodiesel business. He is the author of Biodiesel Power and lives in Moncure, North Carolina.

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