Skip to main content
Digital Audiobook
Going Over Home by Charles Thompson, Jr.

Listen to a sample

00:00
00:00

What to expect

An intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life, as one man searches for community, equality, and tradition in Appalachia

Charles D. Thompson, Jr. was born in southwestern Virginia into an extended family of small farmers. Yet as he came of age he witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. Over the course of his own life of farming, rural education, organizing, and activism, the stories of his home place have been his constant inspiration, helping him identify with the losses of others and to fight against injustices. In Going Over Home, Thompson shares revelations and reflections, from cattle auctions with his grandfather to community gardens in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky, racial disparities of white and Black landownership in the South to recent work with migrant farm workers from Latin America. In this heartfelt first-person narrative, Thompson unpacks our country’s agricultural myths and addresses the history of racism and wealth inequality and how they have come to bear on our nation’s rural places and their people.

Critics Review

  • “Told through moving stories of kinship and solidarity, Going Over Home brings much needed dimension and heart to our conversations about rural life and shows the strength of our bonds when love of place is animated by justice.”—Elizabeth Catte, author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia

  • “This book isn’t just the story of one person’s lifelong fight for justice for family farmers and rural communities. Going Over Home is a call that inspires the reader to stand shoulder to shoulder with family farmers in their daily struggle. It puts into words why all of us at Farm Aid believe in family farmers and rural America, and why their survival matters to all of us—no matter where we live.”—Willie Nelson, president, Farm Aid

  • Booklist, Starred Review—

    "This book deserves a place next to the writings of Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau, and Michael Pollan."

  • “Charles D. Thompson, Jr.’s memoir isn’t just a personal snapshot of some of the most important North American agrarian movements and thinkers. It’s the history of a grateful rural educator’s education written with a deep mix of generosity, curiosity, and wit, and it deserves to be read widely.”—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

See more reviews
  • “Going Over Home bears eloquent witness to Charlie Thompson’s path toward a homegrown revolution of the heart, first illuminated by listening to many voices, then achieved by acting in solidarity with those who struggle for equality and inclusion along the wailing walls that America is building between itself and its own heart. Thompson’s exemplary memoir confronts our separate and unequal pasts and gives us a heartfelt but clear-eyed narrative of American agricultural life and a bridge toward wholeness in a broken time.”—Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, codirector of the Poor People’s Campaign; coauthor of The Third Reconstruction

User Reviews

No reviews yet.

Details

Author
Charles Thompson, Jr.
Narrator
Charles Thompson, Jr.
Duration
7 hours 58 minutes
Release Date
27 September 2019
ISBN
9781603589147
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Chelsea Green Publishing
Genre
Rural communities, Memoirs, Social discrimination and equal treatment, Poverty and precarity, Housing and homelessness, Labour / income economics, Industrial relations, occupational health and safety, Sociology, History of the Americas, Local history, Central / national / federal government policies, Agriculture and farming, Agriculture, agribusiness and food production industries, Regional / International studies, Cultural studies: food and society

Synopsis

An intimate portrait of the joys and hardships of rural life, as one man searches for community, equality, and tradition in Appalachia Charles D. Thompson, Jr. was born in southwestern Virginia into an extended family of small farmers. Yet as he came of age he witnessed the demise of every farm in his family. Over the course of his own life of farming, rural education, organizing, and activism, the stories of his home place have been his constant inspiration, helping him identify with the losses of others and to fight against injustices. In Going Over Home, Thompson shares revelations and reflections, from cattle auctions with his grandfather to community gardens in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky, racial disparities of white and Black landownership in the South to recent work with migrant farm workers from Latin America. In this heartfelt first-person narrative, Thompson unpacks our country’s agricultural myths and addresses the history of racism and wealth inequality and how they have come to bear on our nation’s rural places and their people.

About xigxag

xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK's only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.

There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at $13.95. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from $7.95. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.

Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.

Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.