Toward an Ecological Society

by Murray Bookchin

Toward an Ecological Society compiles key writings from a seminal period in Murray Bookchin's thought, including essays on urbanism, the relation between ecology and technology, and the ongoing significance of the Nuclear question.  

322 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics, philosophy, history, and urban affairs as well as ecology. In the late 1990s he became disenchanted with the strategy of political Anarchism and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called Communalism.

Bookchin was an anti-capitalist and vocal advocate of the decentralisation of society along ecological and democratic lines. His writings on libertarian municipalism, a theory of face-to-face, assembly democracy, had an influence on the Green movement and anti-capitalist direct action groups such as Reclaim the Streets.

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

An admirable attempt by Brecher and Costell to write a sort of manifesto for the "hard times" of the 1970s US. While traveling the US and interviewing ordinary working people, they compile a comprehensive outline of American capitalism and resistance to it, documenting it in plain spoken language. In direct refutations to some allegations of the left, they pay close attention to race and sexual hierarchies as well as ecological issues and do not shy away from criticizing the established trade unions. A particular delight are the pictures and illustrations in the book, very much in the style of their time. Unfortunately, little did Brecher and Costello know when writing this that the "hard times" for the American working class they document in this book would pretty much continue unabated until now!

[Thomas Ray]

HD8072 B724 1979 Memorial Library