The Derrick Jensen Reader: Writings on Environmental Revolution by Derrick Jensen

by Derrick Jensen

In an age marked by seemingly unstoppable environmental collapse and the urgent quest for solutions, environmental philosopher Derrick Jensen, the voice of the growing deep ecology movement, reveals for us new seeds of hope. Here for the first time in The Derrick Jensen Reader are collected generous selections from his prescient, unflinching books on the problem of civilization and the path to true resistance.

In the acclaimed A Language Older Than Words, Jensen dissects his own abusive childhood to examine the pathology of Western culture and shares with us the power and beauty of an alliance with the natural world. He continues to use the lens of his own experience as well as the wisdom of philosophers, activists, and teachers to expose oppression and call us to action in his other early works, Listening to the Land, A Culture of Make Believe, Strangely Like War, and Walking on Water. We see his analysis deepen when he asks us to accept that the only moral response to biocide is resistance in the two-volume Endgame, a truth he explores further in Thought to Exist in the Wild, What We Leave Behind, the graphic novel As The World Burns, and in his two novels, Songs of the Dead and Lives Less Valuable. And in Dreams, Jensen's latest work, he leads us still further toward his vision for a healed planet, freeing us to see beyond the limits of our present culture to a future luminous with meaning.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Politics, Essays

Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Derrick Jensen is an American author and environmental activist living in Crescent City, California. He has published several books questioning and critiquing contemporary society and its values, including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe, and Endgame. He holds a B.S. in Mineral Engineering Physics from the Colorado School of Mines and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University. He has also taught creative writing at Pelican Bay State Prison and Eastern Washington University.

Reviews

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Jensen's books; super long, so in-depth, so painful and important. Some of his stuff is outdated (things are totally worse in some ways) but Derrick Jensen is one of the most important environmental writers ever

[Neal Aggarwal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fabulous book. His interview with Lierre Keith at the very end caps it all. His trauma and how he deals with it comes at a timely moment for me as I write about my own experiences. Human crimes, why rape is so common today, The Man Box - Wow. I read this book in an hour as part of my read-a-book-day resolution but this one is a keeper and I'm going to have to go back and re-read again and again. Watching `Years of Living Dangerously', 'Chasing Ice', 'An Inconvenient Truth' around the same time --- all these resonate --- at a time when we're losing our planet and no one can deny it.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent collection of Jensen's writing; this book would be pretty perfect as an introduction to his ideas and writing style.