Ralph Borsodi (December, 1888 – October 27, 1977) was an American agrarian theorist and practical experimenter interested in ways of living useful to the modern family desiring greater self-reliance (especially so during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

). Much of his theory related to living in rural surroundings on a modern homestead and was rooted in his

Georgist Georgism, also called in modern times Geoism, and known historically as the single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from Land (economics), ...

beliefs.

Life and work

He spent the early years of his life in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. His father William was a publisher who had connections in the advertising field, and Ralph worked in this business as a boy. By the age of 22, Borsodi was personally testing the idea of moving " back to the land." He had fully embraced the concept of

simple living Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. Not only is ...

by 1920. Borsodi was influenced by the reformer Bolton Hall (1854–1938), a friend of his father's; Hall introduced Borsodi to the ideas of the economist

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

. Borsodi was also influenced by

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

Josiah Warren Josiah Warren (; 1798–1874) was an American utopian socialist, American individualist anarchist, individualist philosopher, polymath, social reformer, inventor, musician, printer and author. He is regarded by anarchist historians like Jam ...

, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, and

Laurance Labadie Laurance Labadie (June 4, 1898 – August 12, 1975) was an American individualist anarchist and author. Career Labadie worked in the car industry in Detroit, Michigan. Labadie became an anarchist author, at first mainly republishing articles ...

.James J. Martin's biography of Laurance Labadie
states that his colleague, Mrs. Loomis, recognized the historical continuity of the ideas dating back to

, Lysander Spooner, and Benjamin Tucker. Borsodi is chiefly known for his practical experiments in self-sufficient living during the 1920s and 1930s, and for the books he wrote about these experiments. ''The Distribution Age'' (1927), ''This Ugly Civilization'' (1929), and ''Flight from the City'' (1933) are his best known works. He established a

School of Living A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulsor ...

Rockland County, New York Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of ...

, during the winter of 1934–1935. Before long about 20 families began attending regularly from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, spending the weekends at the school. Some commentators claim Borsodi’s books inspired "hundreds of thousands of people" to follow his example during the Great Depression. Borsodi launched a community land trust in 1935 as a practical test of his ideas. He set up the non-profit Independence Foundation, Inc., with Chauncey Stillman and others, which acquired a tract of about 40 acres of land on Bayard Lane near Suffern, New York. The homes were owned individually, but the land cooperatively. A different group interested in forming a similar community land trust at Stillwater in Ossining, New York, then contacted Borsodi. The Stillwater project was unfortunately abandoned by the Independence Foundation in the early stages as unreasonably large, although it did develop along lines similar to Bayard Lane. In 1937 Borsodi, with Herbert Agar and Chauncey Stillman started a journal called ''Free America'', which advocated local agrarian democracy. In 1948 Borsodi self-published (even doing his own typesetting) ''Education and Living'', a two-volume work designed to suggest a curriculum for the ongoing School of Living. In 1950, Borsodi moved to the Town of Melbourne Village, whose founders had been influenced by his teachings. Mildred Loomis, his most devoted student, continued the work of the School of Living into the 1970s when it was headquartered at Heathcote Community in Freeland, Maryland. With Bob Swann, Borsodi created a

land trust Land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own and manage land, and sometimes waters. There are three common types of land trust, distinguished from one another by the ways in which they are legally structured and by the purposes for which th ...

that functioned as an economic,

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, and credit institution, probably influenced by the ideas of

. Called the Independence Foundation, Inc., Borsodi intended it as a new and ethical way of making low-cost, cooperatively shared credit available to people who wanted to build homesteads in the community. This institution made it possible to provide people access to land without their having to pay outright for property in the beginning. Borsodi spent decades analyzing the ills of modern society and imagining remedies for the problems. His 1968 work, published in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

, and titled ''Seventeen Universal Problems of Man and Society'', catalogued his research and can be considered the beginning of a modern taxonomy of human problems and solutions. His followers felt he usually was working at solving problems at least 20 years before most analysts realized the problem existed. For example, it is said he predicted the

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reduct ...

of the 1970s some thirty years before it came. One of his interests was in local currency, and he started an experiment with such a currency in his home area,

Exeter, New Hampshire Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...

; however, the project came to an early end with Borsodi's failing health. He created a commodity-backed bartering currency called the Constant, reminiscent of

's "labor notes" at the Cincinnati Time Store. These appeared first as paper notes, but in 1974, coin-like pieces, called Globes, were minted and sold in 1/2 ounce and 1 ounce .999 silver denominations. The non-profit organization that sponsored them was the International Foundation for Independence, Inc., but the Globes were minted and sold by an organization called Arbitrage International. Image:Globe_reverse.jpg, Globe obverse Image:Globe_obverse.jpg, Globe reverse Borsodi died in

, in October 1977, survived by his wife Clare and two sons - Edward M. and Ralph W. - by his first wife Myrtle Mae Simpson.

Influence

Borsodi was cited as an important modern critic and creative thinker by

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

and Scott Nearing in such writings as ''Living the Good Life'', a book sometimes credited as being the clarion call of the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s. J.I. Rodale, who founded ''Organic Gardening and Farming'' magazine got his introduction to organic gardening at Borsodi's Dogwood Acres Homestead, as did the Keene family, founders of Walnut Acres organic food catalog. Borsodi was also a significant influence on the American

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's en ...

movement.McCarthy, Daniel (2007-03-12

''

The American Conservative ''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...

'' A number of Borsodi's texts can be found in the Social Criticism section of the Soil and Health Online Library.

Selected works

* ''National advertising vs. prosperity a study of the economic consequences of national advertising'' (1923) *
The Distribution Age
' (1927). *

' (1929). *
Flight from the City
' (1933). * ''Prosperity and Security, A Study in Realistic Economics'' (1938) *''The time has come : an open letter to the teachers of mankind on the question of war and peace and the creation of a really new world order'' (1942) * ''Inflation Is Coming'' (1948) * '' Education and Living'' (1948 * ''The Challenge of Asia : A Study of Conflicting Ideas and Ideals'' (1956) * ''The Definition of Definition: A New Linguistic Approach to the Integration of Knowledge'' (1967) *
This Ugly Civilization: 90th Anniversary Edition
' (2019) * ''Homestead notes'' a Journal, published by the School of Living, 1933-?

References

External links

The School of Living

This Ugly Civilization Website
Available at Soil and Health Online Library:

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borsodi, Ralph 1888 births 1977 deaths American agronomists Economists from New York (state) American libertarians Green thinkers Writers from New York City 20th-century American economists Organic gardeners Georgist economists

Life and work

Influence

Selected works

See also

References

External links