Longing for Arcadia expresses the life long hope and largely unsuccessful search of the author

for a tranquil, free and rural land. First, he discovered agriculture, which was not the answer. Then anarchism

seemed to be the resolution of the matter. This was the anarchist society built upon mutual aid and

voluntary cooperation. Soon, he confessed that while the anarchist critique of society was the most convincing of all,

the chances of achieving and maintaining such a society were unlikely. Next he encountered anthropology

and made it his life career. While anthropology was also inadequate, he felt at least it served as a

bulwark against ethnocentrism and it unveiled the immense variety of human cultures, demonstrating that

such entities as capitalism and government did not need to be inevitable and immutable elements of all human

society.

His widespread world travels initially put him in Egypt and the Sudan, where for more than three

years he taught and did field studies of the contemporary population. For over thirty years the author

taught at universities in the United States and Canada. During this time he undertook numerous journeys, especially

especially through Europe and the Middle East, wrote several books and raised a family. Retired from the

University of Alberta in 1989, he eventually moved to Vernon, British Columbia, where he continues to write,

to garden and to ride his old horse, Coral.

Scattered throughout the book are numerous observations and provocative comments on a multitude of

topics, including philosophy, religion, politics, economics, social organization and agriculture.

The author has dubbed himself and anarcho-cynicalist in part after the ancient Cynics, who undertook

a radical critique of society and seemed to be advocating something like a fee or anarchist society.