Against Civilization: Readings and Reflections

by John Zerzan

"Read it and you will never think of civilization in the same way again."--Kirkpatrick Sale

This anthology about "the pathology of civilization" offers insight into how progress and technology have led to emptiness and alienation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0922915989
• ISBN13: 9780922915989
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Feral House
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.93 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.6" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Against Civilization

An exciting consideration of the things we all most need to know. The illustrations are also outstanding.

A great critique of civilization

Against Civilization by John Zerzan is a great compilation of writings from the hands of many different authors. The essays/excerpts cover a variety of subjects, including: topsoil depletion, deforestation, the loss of bio-diversity, pollution, and the human influence on the natural world. Many of the essays also discuss the harms of modern life, the emptiness of civilized living, and the pervasive unhappiness that pervades so many human lives. My favorite writings were: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality Fredy Perlman, Against His-story, Against Leviathan! Marvin Harris, Our Kind Chellis Glendinning, My Name is Chellis and I'm Recovering from Western Civilization Ivan Illich, Toward a History of Needs Tamarack Song, The Old Way and Civilization William Koetke, The Final Empire: The Collapse of Civilization and The Seed of the Future Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends: Politics and Transcendence in Postindustrial Society Feral Faun, Feral Revolution Kirkpatrick Sale, Rebels Against the Future: Lessons from the Luddites All in all, this book is a great read for those willing to take an honest, hard look at what we call civilization.

Honest Words...

This I a beautiful collection of work from the most important thinkers of our time. John Zerzan put this amaizing book together for people who know the horrors of civilization. I would reccomend this book to anybody and everybody living in our destructive modern culture. This book brings up points of an all around great perspective of civilization, with words from my personal favorite authors. Another plus is it is short but still a very percise and accurate read. You could finish it in a day or weekend. Over all beautiful piece of work.

Join The Primal Revival

Transcend the misery of the last 8000 years of Empire and join the Paleolithic heritage of over 2 million years of tribal life, ecstatic in wildernesses of soul, forest, and desert! Zerzan collects the feral souls of the ages, insurging to overcome this inhuman leviathan that seeks to swallow us all and spit us out as lifeless cogs! This book demonstrates a possibility to really go for the gold, to stop whining and demanding the petty-possible of Democrepublican corporate sellout mediocrity, and to reimagine how Wild life could really be! Especially noteworthy is the article on the Animals Fighting Back... It is high time we put the whole nonsense of civilization on the table to be debated and overcome. Why is civilization nonsense? Because it means war, hierarchy, class oppression, environmental degradation, et al. True "progress" will involve going beyond civilization to something more "civilized" and something more paleolithic and intense! Buy this book! It will provoke your thoughts! It will take you outside media culture!