I was so irritated with certain of the author's premises that I found myself arguing as much as reading. But then it is good to read things that you don't agree with - it offers the opportunity to learn something new. I learned a different way of looking at the "Older Cultures" - that is the tribal cultures. I learned a very interesting method of sustainable farming used in the Amazon by (I think) the Kayapo tribe. I really give the author credit for realizing that no specific measures can save the planet from the fix we've put it in - it will take a change of mindset. That is something that I do agree with wholeheartedly - and for that reason I feel the book is generally worth reading (3 stars). However, the book cannot possibly succeed in its aim of encouraging a different mindset, because it is written in a way to put off anyone who does not already pretty much already agree with him. He repeatedly denigrates the beliefs of many serious religious folk and even of most thinking modern secular folks. He wants to unite, but he takes the soap box for one political party - how does he think he is going to sell "cooperation" to members of the other party? The premise with which I took such exception is that "city-states" (that is all material progress - all civilization as we know it) is like a cancer .... not the excessive materialism, but all of it - the progress and the immoderation all together. He cannot find one kind word to say about material progress from Gilgamesh in Sumeria, through Egypt, China, Greece, Rome, Incas, etc. Well, friends, I read this book while I was marooned. There's nothing like sitting for 2 hours pounding corn in a hollowed out log with the end of a piece of rebar so you can feed your chickens to make you think 6 minutes of electricity and your little food mill is a gift of the intellect - that ancient wisdom, sustainability AND modest modern convenience would make the best of all worlds.

A most succinct explanation of how and why modern civilization has evolved into (I'm sad to say) a cancer upon this planet. But don't be put off by my choice of words because this cancer is very curable. It will however take each and every person to re-adjust our beliefs, thoughts and values to do so. This isn't hard to do when you understand the problem which is so beautifully laid out in the this book.

I can’t remember who recommended the book, but the title sounded interesting so I bought it. It didn’t take very long to see that the author had some very strong democratic liberal bias and it affected my ability to enjoy the book. I finished it mostly to educate myself about the position as perceived by the left-wing media.... It had some interesting insights about “old culture” views and I enjoyed that, so I gave it 3 stars. Won’t be reading any more from this author!

A very well-written historical and philosophical look at why we are where we are at this point in time. It's a great tool for re-examining one's priorities and day-to-day lifestyle. Although this is written in the 90's its insights seem even more relevant right now. The author examines cultures throughout history to explore and examine the current cultural and spiritual void many of us feel. Recommended.

I'm impressed. I read this primarily as a theologian; I'm fascinated by the notion that "original sin" could stem from the moment 40.000 years ago when some tribe decided it was imperative to take more than it needed. I stumbled into Thom Hartman through an amazing movie, a documentary called "I Am". Also excellent.

This went from educational to ridiculous so abruptly, I felt like I fell through the floor of a library into an underground cult meeting.
The dude spends 100 pages citing all the environmental disasters we’re facing (which yeah are important), blaming it primarily on the “Younger Culture” of the past 7000 years. He specifically condemns the Bible for teaching us that exploitation of nature was super chill because humans are meant to “multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”. Sure, you can have that opinion. Not sure I’d generalize every person and modern culture in the world that easily but whatever.
It then turns out he’s a mega Christian??? And he thinks the solution to all this is getting enough people to pray on it?????
I’m sorry bro but your daily ritual of drinking red wine to remind yourself of Jesus’ blood won’t bring back the Amazon.
Also he throws in the most random pseudoscience for no reason. THERE IS NO HARVARD DOUBLE-BLIND STUDY THAT PROVES PRAYER HEALS PEOPLE FASTER. BIRDS DO NOT ALL HAVE A SHARED CONSCIOUSNESS. HOW DO I EVEN HAVE TO WRITE THAT SECOND ONE
And why is quantum entanglement even mentioned in this book? How do you spend two pages on “faster-than-light communication” which, believe it or not, is still impossible. Glad you’re well informed on physics man.
I absolutely respect his opinions even though I disagree with a lot of them. And spirituality is not an irrelevant thing, it has so much meaning for many people. But to so brazenly suggest our best course of action is to essentially do nothing, is frustrating at best. Yes changing our culture is crucial but you’re not gonna get that done with this book.

I didn't find the first section of the book particularly compelling and one of my criticisms of the book in general was what felt at times like poor organization or the threading of the various concepts of the book together. For example, he spends a few pages describing how rising temperatures may release large amounts of methane hydrates from our oceans (and why this scenario could be very bad) and then rounds off the chapter with, "but... this probably won't happen...".

On another note that irked me, he pushes aside nuclear energy as part of our solution moving forward in a page or two and at times uses very specific argument points (in the case of nuclear power and other areas) which then lacks citation.

But! I was surprised at how much I resonated with the later sections of the book, how to change our culture we must make changes on a personal level. Plus some really memorable quotes. And that we should respect all life and how a viewpoint separating humans from nature is dangerous.

This is one of the books from this year that I will probably have to read again someday. I read and discussed it, but I honestly don’t remember it as much as I’d like and I’m not sure if it’s because I read it too quickly, or because I’ve already heard these ideas before, or what. I will say that I do know that I appreciated the level of research and scholarship that went into this book. One of my biggest problems with Daniel Quinn’s Story of B, which expressed many of the same ideas, was the lack of evidence and footnotes, and this book has them in abundance. I also appreciated how, while Hartmann painted a fairly bleak picture of our world, he expressed belief in the possibility of change and overall had more optimism than Quinn. While I don’t agree with everything he says, and I’m not sure that all of his facts will stand the test of time (his description of China as a country willing to take drastic steps to “survive” seems less than inspirational with the hindsight knowledge that China now has some of the worst pollution, and their one child policy led to the gendercide which served as the initial inspiration for Half the Sky, and which has now been repealed), I still think that his ideas have definite merit and should be read and considered by more people. If you want an in-depth discussion of the state of the world, everything from our use of fossil fuels to how the love of Americans for burgers leads to deforestation to the issues decreasing diversity to how loggers replanting trees still leaves gaps in the water cycle to antibiotics in meats, check it out. Read, challenge, ponder.

A very easy to read book yet thought provoking book.
Our society is built on teh use of ancient sunlight, we fight wars over it, since it is a limited resource. The civilizations before us did the same and in the end collapsed because they forgot something vitally important....the we are part of nature and it is part of us.
There is no pyramid where we are at teh top..just circles within circles intertwining in more ways then we can understand fully.
This book delves into the past, the far past where tribal structures were the norm, a few still managing to exist to modern times, and the more recent past, the 7,000 years we know as human civilization. It shows not just social structure but how that affected economic structure and how it affected the environment they lived in.
In the end we need to learn from these pasts, remember what we have forgotten as a species.
But though we need to change our view of teh planet and nature and ourselves, change how we live, our economies and society as a whole, it isnt an either or situation. We dont need to totally give up our tech and all those things we have learned, but we can use them to built a sustainable civilization that allows us to live as part of nature, in harmony with the world around us, and will take us far into the future. Perhaps our tech will even enable us to heal some of the scars our civilization has made on the face of teh Earth.
It all starts with us as individuals changing how we view our home and our place in it and then changing how we interact with it. All those small movements, ripples, will fan out and combine into bigger ripples, as we see around the world even today, ripples of change.
Primitive isnt living simply in harmony with nature, primitive is being irresponsible and immature and destroying the natural world around us for a quick buck that wont have any value when civilization collapses.

Not what a initially expected or bought it in the first place. As i thought it was a book about climate change, but as it turns out it's a book that's more than that.

Before moving any further I must say it's been quite an experience. Started reading this 4 years ago but somehow got distracted and didn't take up on the challenge of finishing it only one fine day 4 years later.

It is definitely spiritually motivated, however some of the chapters sounded very hippie like, which quite a unexpected yet mysterious pathway I am not entirely familiar with. Nevertheless worth a read.

In short, if I were to analogize it into a song it would be "Heal the World" by Michael Jackson.

Wow. Huge book! I barely know to comment on it. Life-changing, moving toward cooperative culture and sustainability, as a matter of survival, individually and communally.

At the time, I felt maybe naively but sincerely that it had permanently changed my view of life, and the future of Earth. Perhaps it did. My favorite part of the book, however, is not its message of challenge and hope to humanity. Rather it is the personal stories or friendship and miracle (for lack of a better word) that form the structure and backbone of the narrative. This aspect makes Hartmann's book so exceptional, and worth reading, among books in this genre.

I wonder if this book is outdated, since its overall directive has been largely ignored since, in practice anyway. It was written around the time that more awareness was dawning, that concern about eventual fossil fuel shortage and the collapse of civilization as we know it, along with fervent hope for overcoming, was emerging. Perhaps it played a role in this dawning.

Excellent and passionate - I'd have given this book five stars except for some factual errors that were kind of jarring and made it hard to trust any other data if I didn't know whether or not it was correct. But the main thrust of the book is beyond reasonable debate, the point that our society as it currently operates is unsustainable both because we're rendering our environment unlivable and because the fossil fuels are finite and we're running through them at a speed that guarantees we'll run out within a generation or two at latest.