Reviews New Buffalo & Leaving New Buffalo

• An Incredibly Important Book! James H. Overton, Amazon review. August 5, 2008

  Leaving New Buffalo Commune By Arthur Kopecky
  University of New Mexico Press. 2006.xxiii + 213 pp. 29 halftones, maps. $1995 paper, ISBN 978-0-8263-405402.Albuquerque, NM

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  This is part 2 of Arthur Kopecky's published journals written while a member of the New Buffalo commune in the highlands of New Mexico some 35-40 years ago. It is an incredibly enlightening story that holds many a lesson for us today. The question is: will we be able to ultimately live together on this planet? At New Buffalo, the world seemed to be represented in microcosm. All the joy, sadness, achievement, failure, agreement, conflict... everything that life holds, was experienced by a group of courageous, hard working, loving (and sometimes embattled) participants in a daring social experiment. The narrative is incredibly real and filled with the kind of human detail that makes for the most compelling reading. I couldn't put it down and was profoundly impressed. Arthur's introduction and epilogue provide a point of relevance to today's world. Many of the same issues that confronted these young people are hanging over the heads of today's youth. It's just possible that we may be able to make a change by applying again some of the ideas represented in these writings... By all means, read both books, New Buffalo and Leaving New Buffalo!