288 pages, bibliography, index
Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-118-6 $24.99
Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-119-4 $53.99

Ecology and the Environment / Philosophy
June 1998

MURRAY BOOKCHIN READER

Janet Biehl, editor

This collection provides an overview of the thought of the foremost social theorist and political philosopher of the libertarian left today. His writings span five decades, and subject matter of remarkable breadth. Bookchin's writings on revolutionary philosophy, politics, and history are far less known than the specific controversies that have surrounded him, but they are deserving of far greater attention.

Despite his critical engagement with both Marxism and anarchism, his political philosophy, known as `libertarian municipalism', draws on the best of both for the emancipatory tools to build a democratic libertarian alternative. His nature philosophy is an organic outlook of generation, development, and evolution, that grounds human beings in natural evolution, yet, contrary to today's fashionable antihumanism, places them firmly at its summit. Bookchin's anthropological writings trace the rise of hierarchy and domination out of egalitarian societies, while his historical writings cover important chapters in the European revolutionary tradition.

Consistent throughout his work is a search for ways to replace today's capitalist society with a more rational and humane alternative. The selections in this reader constitute a sampling from the writings of one of the pivotal thinkers of our era.
Table of Contents
List of Sources
Introduction

Janet Biehl lectures on radical history at the Institute for Social Ecology, Vermont. She is co-editor of the newsletter, Green Perspectives, published by the Social Ecology Project in Vermont.

Murray Bookchin is one of North America's most important writers on environmental issues and has been active in the ecology movement for more than thirty years. Professor Emeritus at the School of Environmental Studies, Ramapo College and Director Emeritus of the Institute of Social Ecology, he has authored more than a dozen books on urbanism, ecology, technology and philosophy.