50%

Unfortunately he didn't talk to me before writing this book, this is a very divisionary book which we really need to focus on unity and switching around so that we use clean power and renewable resources of course but when we tie in politics and religion it dilutes the message it turns people off and the people that would have been on your side now have a bug up their ass because of what you said.

Good goal, poor medium.

REQUIRED READING! (The author keeps this book updated. It's been published in numerous languages.) One of the best books I've ever read -- EVER! This is a must-read for anyone who cares -- about anything. ***Thom's comparison between older and newer cultures is beyond fascinating!! And makes the points he wants to make!! And, it's fascinating! *** Exceptionally well researched and well written. Thom Hartmann knows his history, current events, and has the deepest understanding of life on this planet as anyone I know of.

There are some good ideas in this book: sunlight as the basis for all atoms more complex than hydrogen (via novas); current sunlight as plants, animals that eat plants, and animals that eat animals; ancient sunlight as fossil fuels; the myriad of potentially cataclysmic risks to social and ecological collapse; the difference between older cultures for most of humanity and younger cultures since the agricultural revolution and permanent settlements; how stories shape our collective consciousness and relationships with each other and the environment; how corporations are powerful totalitarian social organizations, analogous to invader robots; and the recent rise of political authoritarianism.

In all of these, the author synthesizes several authors, to include Daniel Quinn, and tries to build on these ideas. Very good so far.

But things go wrong. The author suggests all we need to do is love more or change ourselves and everything will resonate outward into the universe. On the one hand, he offers faint criticism of the younger culture religions, to include Judaism and Christianity, but then embraces and promotes them without further criticism. (In my opinion, the world religions have outlived their purpose, which was primarily to support the survival and expansion of domination cultures). There was a lot of other unnecessary God and similar spiritual talk.

He similarly fawns over the US Founding Fathers, Constitution, and democracy, barely acknowledging any flaws.

Lastly, it was a bit wordy. Probably could have cut a third out.

Not a terrible book, but it could have been much better. Worth reading if you recognize the pitfalls.

This is an amazing book that describes the situation on our planet and how we got here. It also gives suggestions of what we can do - self-sufficient communities. I learned many things that I did not know before. This is where I first learned about corporations having the rights of people. It was a real eye-opener for me

Fascinating read. You may not agree with everything he says but there is so much material to ponder and question your own stance on issues. It can be a real game-changer if you stick with it all the way to the end. My view of my environment as well as my fellow man has definitely been impacted in a very positive way. It may seem a little slow in a couple of spots but I highly recommend reading all the way to the end. You won't be sorry!

Definitely an important book. I learned a lot about the ways in which we are destroying the earth-and this book was published in 1998, so the dire straits the author describes have only gotten worse since then. The first chapter freaked me out so much that I didn't get back to reading it for a while. It's a real eye-opener, and probably should be required reading. Also, it's well written. The last portion of the book, in which Hartmann talks about what we can do to solve this disaster, is not all that helpful, so I mostly skimmed it.

This is the first real environmental book I’ve read and it passed my Random Page Test, causing me to sit down for an hour in the bookstore reading it. It was so good I even bought the hard cover edition! From Amazon.com: "Thom Hartman offers a highly persuasive argument for adopting the spiritual values of our ancient ancestors, which means living with a strong connection to the earth as well as the sun that nourishes us all. Nowadays, humans often perceive themselves as separate from nature and born to dominate it, says Hartman who lays out some frightening, albeit thorough, research on the destruction of the planet. But as the book progresses, he guides readers into a convincing and intelligent vision for reversing our destructive ways."

Afterwards, catch Thom Hartmann on AM 1310, Air America Radio, Detroit.

The kind of book that won't be read by the people who need to read it, or if they did it probably would not change their minds or practices. Considering this is from 2004, things have just gotten worse and no amount of solar or wind energy is going to keep things from collapsing in my opinion.
Climate change is increasing at an alarming rate and I don't see society changing in the ways the author recommends. So from things I've read it is already too late!

The first half of the book is quite depressing and describes how dire our environmental problems are. also a lot of his data needed updating. The second half of the book was a wonderful description of younger versus older cultures. I even enjoyed his discussion on politics. I have a renewed interest and respect of tribal culture now. This book is a must read for people who aren't aware of the seriousness of our environmental problems and who needs awakening. I have already woken up but this has gotten me to think more about community and culture and what kind of community I would like to be a part of in the future.

How does our view of ourselves impact other people, plants, animals, and the Earth we depend on?

This author finally puts some perspective on how civilization has developed in a world of finite resources. As population has grown, we have increasingly accessed older forms of stored energy. As we use energy at an exponential rate, we are drawing down fuels which have taken millions of years to form.

This book was not available in Canada, but I was able to get a used copy (with free delivery!) from Better World Books.

In all my years of rating books on Goodreads, I've never written out a review before. This book, however, was so incredibly frustrating that I couldn't simply give it 3 stars (I almost gave it just 2) without some additional explanation.

I will start with some positives, because there certainly were a few. For instance, I do appreciate that the author recognizes that we're in quite a mess as a species (although his analysis falls well short of getting to the roots of the problem, which I'll touch on later). I also enjoyed the details he shared about Older Cultures. As someone who comes from a Younger Culture, I found there to be a lot of valuable information about alternative ways to structure societies. I also thought some of his 'solutions' weren't terrible advice, just not necessarily good 'solutions.'

Now for the problematic:

First, while he recognizes that we're on an unsustainable path, he never fully gets to the roots of just why this path is unsustainable; he never comes to the conclusion that civilization as a whole is unsustainable. Along the same lines, he introduces the reader to a significant number of positive aspects regarding Older Cultures and extremely negatively aspects of Younger Cultures, but then concludes that attempting to preserve our Younger Culture is the best way forward regardless. Sure, he encourages us to sprinkle in some Older Culture values along the way to make things ever so slightly less awful, but he doesn't seem interested in fundamentally changing anything (as evidenced by him encouraging people to simply vote for Democrats as one of his 'solutions.') He also praises the United States as being a less toxic - albeit corrupted - Younger Culture. I'm not sure how he arrived at that conclusion - given that the U.S. is arguably the most destructive entity this planet has ever seen - but he had lost me at that point in the book already anyway.

In conclusion, I'll just say that I'm grateful that I found thinkers such as John Zerzan and Derrick Jensen far before I discovered this book. (And honestly, Jensen's Endgame is the book that this book badly wants to be). You may still find a few useful elements in The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, but please know that there are far, far better analyses out there that are much more worthy of your time.

Cold, depressing assessment of our planet's current energy situation and what lead up to it. Enjoyed the concept of all energy being light transformed, with the distinction between current light energy (crops grown, wind blowing, light shining *today*) versus past light energy (fossil fuels etc.) that are stored. Our 'progress', not just over the past 200 or so years, but Hartmann argues since ancient Mesopotamia (Epic of Gilgamesh), has been based off of either stolen light energy (slavery) or past light energy (burning coal or wood at unsustainable rates, other fossil fuels). Hartmann goes on to refer to cultures that grew by these means as "younger" cultures, versus "older cultures" which have a fundamentally different view of resources, sustainability, community and our relationship to the planet. The last parts of the book explore what lessons we can learn and apply from older cultures of the past as well as those few that have managed to survive to this day. It's here that Hartmann may lose some readers with a shift toward the spiritual. He almost lost me too, but I think there is much to consider in what he presents, and the book certainly stands on its own, now in its second edition.