Jorwerd: The Death of the Village in Late 20th Century Europe [Paperback]

Geert Mak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2001

Born in Friesland himself, Geert Mak has returned to his roots to explore the "silent revolution" that took place in the small village of Jorwerd, Friesland, after World War II. He lived in Jorwerd for six months, gathering the personal stories of Jorwerters past and present, many of whom were born, lived and died there. By interweaving their colourful stories with the wider history of Europe, Mak provides an unsentimental portrayal of the pleasures and the hardships of living in the country, while illustrating at the same time how rural life everywhere is under threat from the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Real storytelling is a gift; an almost forgotten talent," says Mak, a Netherlands journalist, as he conveys how a farming community used the oral tradition, "the literature of the poor and unseen," to preserve its history. In this study of a small village in the northern Netherlands, Mak describes the demise of this tradition as a part of the vast cultural transformation that has taken place from 1945 to the present. From the 650 people who lived in Jorwerd in 1900, speaking the Frisian rather than the Dutch language, the population has fallen to 330. Farming as a way of life has been dramatically altered by mechanization, and the resulting increased productivity led to quotas set by the government, which restricted, for example, the amount of milk a dairy farmer could produce. This policy had a negative impact on small farming families. The interviews Mak conducted with Jorwerd's residents, for whom he obviously has a great deal of affection, make clear that the centuries-old bond between the farmer and his land has also been eroded. Progress has brought development and newcomers to Jorwerd. This influx of city people who have come to enjoy rural life has also changed the town's social mores, formerly based on traditional family values. Although the author recognizes the oppressiveness inherent in small villages, he mourns the ebbing sense of community that held them together. Mak's study of Jorwerd is a mirror for other countries where farming life is on the wane.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Nowhere has the silent rural revolution been described more beautifully and with more feeling." -- De Volkskrant

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harvill Press (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860468039
• ISBN-13: 978-1860468032
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,104,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern history of the common man at its best, August 2, 2001

By 

Linda Oskam "dutch-traveller" (Amsterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jorwerd: The Death of the Village in Late 20th Century Europe (Paperback)

Read it and think back of the good old times.

Geert Mak describes the enormous changes that happened in small Dutch villages (and probably all over the western world) in the 1970's: the local grocery shop disappeared, due to smaller-sized families the local school had to close down, people went to work in nearby cities becoming commuters instead of traditional farmers and even the farms changed: no more horses and small fields, but tractors, lorries and enormous fields. And what is amazing is that it happened without people realizing that a way of life got lost forever: it was truely a silent revolution.

In this book Geert Mak succeeds fully in describing the process of this revolution, the small changes creeping into the apparently static society of a small village in rural Frisia by telling the simple life stories of farmers, grocers, even the local music club. Geert Mak is a renowned Dutch journalist and it shows in his way of writing: the style is smooth and fascinating with an avid eye for detail as well as the human angle.