In the past fifty years, the standard of living in most industrialized nations has risen dramatically, but the number of people describing themselves as content has remained steady or fallen. The result has been a growing desire to regain some of the virtues of simpler times, whether by forgoing luxuries, switching careers, or returning to nature. These essays reflect on the different facets of 'voluntary simplicity' and consumer culture, providing an historic view of the movement as well as a social-scientific analysis of its causes and effects.

A simpler life. In a shadow cast by the jarring beginning of the new millennium, simplicity has an undeniable appeal. Global conflicts, domestic security concerns, and a stalling economy can make keeping up with the Joneses feel like, at best, a misguided luxury. Now is not a time for excess; it is a time, it would seem, to focus on 'what really matters.' Thus the appeal of voluntary simplicity, a notion that combines the freedom of modernity with certain comforts and virtues of the past. The authors in this volume speak to the what, why, and how of voluntary simplicity (and even to some extent the where, when, and who). Those included range from contemporary academics to thinkers from the turn of the last century, from ardent supporters to staunch critics. They approach the subject from a variety of perspectives-economic, psychological, sociological, historical, and theological. Each either implicitly or explicitly helps us explore the desirability and feasibility of voluntary simplicity.

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Introduction: Voluntary Simplicity— Psychological Implications, Societal Consequences
Part 3 Human Wants, Human Goods
Chapter 4 A Theory of Human Motivation
Chapter 5 Wealth and Happiness: A Limited Relationship
Chapter 6 Consuming for Love
Chapter 7 The Problem of Over-Consumption-Why Economists Don't Get It
Chapter 8 Achieving Collective Well-Being through Greater Simplicity: A Simple Proposal
Part 9 Simplicity Throughout History
Chapter 10 Early American Simplicity: The Quaker Ethic
Chapter 11 Simple Needs
Chapter 12 The Value of Voluntary Simplicity
Chapter 13 Voluntary Simplicity: A Movement Emerges
Part 14 Critical Perspectives
Chapter 15 Conspicuous "Simplicity"
Chapter 16 The Liberating Role of Consumption and the Myth of Artificially Created Desires