The Harrows of Spring by James Howard Kunstler is the fourth and last book in the World Made by Hand Series. The series follows the life and inhabitants of a quaint upstate New York town a number of years after both the power grid and governments around the world have failed. United States doesn’t really exist anymore and lawlessness and violence are commonplace. The town of Union Grove strives to remain a peaceful and safe community. They have welcomed newcomers and absorbed them into the community and are now trying to make bonds of trade and commerce with other communities.

In this volume they are visited by a group of left-leaning hucksters who are trying to scam the village out of it’s silver by offering them inclusion in their Berkshire People’s Republic which, in fact, doesn’t exist. I can’t believe that I read all of the books in this series, as his treatment of women, and political learnings to the far right are very different from my own. My only defense is that I am a sucker for dystopian stories. ( )

The fourth and final volume in the World Made My Hand series continues with the characters of the previous books and adds some new ones. There are several tragic events and some miraculous ones, a surprise or two, and a new storyline concerning a traveling band of new-age crooks. There is the expected and inevitable summing up, some loose ends are attended to, but it hardly seems like an end. I avoid multi-volume sets like the plague, but if another book came along in this series I'd buy it. The author knows how to keep you turning the pages, and there's a sly wit to the narration that makes many of the more unpleasant proceedings easier to take, and gives the whole series a kind of universal feel, as if these people represent all of us. If the world were to end, I could think of a lot worse places to be than Union Grove. ( )

The final episode about the fortunes of Union Grove includes the revival of the newspaper, threats from outside and helplessness in the face of diseases once conquered. A few jabs at unrealistic identity politic type groups. Generally entertaining with a few loose ends left untied, including the increasing unbalance of the local landowner, Bullock.

The Harrows of Spring by James Howard Kunstler is the highly recommended fourth and final volume of the World Made by Hand series. After the world has experienced numerous catastrophes and plagues (before this book) the future now resembles the nineteenth century.

Spring is coming to Union Grove, a small town in upstate New York, which could be a good thing, but there are problems. Food is scarce in the spring and this year is going to be even more challenging since plantation owner and feudal landlord Stephen Bullock is no longer going to have some of his men take his boat down to Albany for goods. The whole town has depended upon his men making this trip and them paying him for the things they need but can't provide for themselves. Stephen can be a little moody.

After his travels, Daniel Earle is back and is starting a paper in town, Brother Jobe and his industrious group are still around too. More disturbing is the group of anti-establishment, hyper-liberals known as the Berkshire People’s Republic who are camping outside of town and have sent a representative to the town. "As the concluding novel in the series powerful, moving tale of insurrection, survival, and what it means to be human."

This is an entertaining conclusion to the series. Those who have not read the previous books might want to before jumping into this fourth and final volume. I don't think they stand entirely on their own without the scaffolding provided by the previous volumes. Clearly it reads like a novel set in the past. The roles of women in this society also reflect past duties, which may bother some readers. The Harrows of Spring reflect social critic Kunstler's views in real life. Perhaps not the best written of the series, I'm rating on the series as a whole.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes. ( )