Defining the Simple Life. Below is the foreword to Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future, edited by Samuel Alexander and Amanda McLeod. This book collects together 26 chapters discussing individuals, cultures, and movements that have embraced forms of âsimple livingâ throughout history. The âpreface by the editorsâ and table of contents are available here, and the book is available here. The simple life is almost as hard to define as it is to live.