Ralph Borsodi

Ralph Borsodi (1886 – October 26, 1977[1]) was an 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). Much of his theory elated to living in rural surroundings on a modern homestead and was rooted in his Georgist beliefs. Born in New York City, he spent the earliest years of his life in Manhattan. His father 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."[2] He had fully embraced the concept of simple living 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.[3] Borsodi was also influenced by Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche,[4] Josiah Warren, Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, and Laurance Labadie.[5] 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.[6] He established a School of Living in Rockland County, New York during the winter of 1934–1935. Before long about 20 families began attending regularly from New York City, 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. 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.