Life Within Limits

“Life Within Limits is a book on Sierra Leonean realities, but it is also a work that tries to understand the human condition more generally. At its center is a trip to Sierra Leone, where Michael Jackson revisits the village where he did fieldwork almost forty years ago. Between the conversations in the 1970s and those of today falls a brutal civil war with immense human suffering, but also births and deaths, young people growing old, some dreams realized, others not. In its rare combination of accumulated knowledge and ongoing critical self-reflection, Life Within Limits is anthropological writing at its best.”—Sverker Finnström, author of Living with Bad Surroundings: War, History, and Everyday Moments in Northern Uganda
“Distinctively original and beautifully written, Life Within Limits recounts Michael Jackson’s return to the Sierra Leonean village of Firawa, where he first began fieldwork in 1969. Re-encountering the life-worlds of people in the wake of a shattering civil war, Jackson follows the Kuranko notion of kendeye, or well-being, juxtaposing this with insights on well-being grounded in the work of anthropologists, philosophers, and novelists. Throughout, Kuranko proverbs and stories offer a rich counterpoint to Western philosophers.”—Kirin Narayan, author of My Family and Other Saints
“Michael Jackson has done it again. This is a beautifully observed essay on human well-being and the ethnographic process. There is an elegant blending of ethnography, travel memoir, and philosophical reflection.”—Michael J. Lambek, author of The Weight of the Past: Living with History in Mahajanga, Madagascar
“Michael Jackson is one of contemporary anthropology’s consummate storytellers.... In this case, Jackson’s theme is the existential discontent that human beings wrestle with as they attempt to define, and live, a fulfilling and hopeful life.... How do the pressures of poverty in a world now defined by the money economy shape the aspirations of individuals and communities?... Given the diversity of ways in which human beings deal with a similar set of existential problems, philosophy for Jackson is best done with the tools of ethnography and by serious immersion in the minutiae of different ways of being human.... For both aspiring and veteran ethnographers, Jackson’s stories are poignant examples of how human a science anthropology can be.” -- Danny Hoffman * Journal of Anthropological Research *
“Reading Michael Jackson’s remarkable book reaffirmed my belief in the remarkable human capacity for social resilience. Such resilience enables us to experience a measure of well-being—even in a context of want. Unlike most books that focus on anthropological subjects, this one compels us to think about big questions—themes that shape the human condition. As such, Life within Limits is a gift to us all.”  -- Paul Stoller * American Ethnologist *
“Life Within Limits skillfully blends history, philosophy and travel memoir to address a contemporary development problem: How can people achieve well-being in a world of finite resources?” -- Laura Camfield * Progress in Development Studies *
“This is the work of an elder, literary and philosophical, yet the style is personal, anecdotal, and impressionistic…. One former renegade Jackson encounters… serves as a briefly glimpsed symbol of separation from others and from the deeper cultural sensibility that Jackson explores so gracefully in this book.”  -- John Chernoff * Africa *
“Jackson weaves effortlessly between the raw details of life in Sierra Leone and the musings of Western writers and philosophers, and he brings to light how, in spite of the immediate differences of detail in humanity’s daily struggles, the underlying themes of dissatisfaction and hope are resonant.” -- Catherine E. Bolten * Current Anthropology *
“In sum, Jackson provides a compelling and eloquent alternative account of ‘the good life’ as lived in Firawa, as temporally deep as it is ethnographically evocative. More than a corrective to current popular, academic, and development discourses on ‘quality of life’ in Sierra Leone, Life Within Limits explores recent social transformations wrought by civil conflict, migration, and growing inequality… without reducing lived experience to these analytical categories." -- Shirley Yeung * Journal of Religion in Africa *