This book asks some deeply troubling questions about the darker side of our culture, about its injustices and inherent destructiveness. We don't like to be reminded, or hear for the first time, of the true cost of our life-styles. We don't want to think that there is any negative byproduct to our cultural advancement. A conservative's instinctive reaction would be to discredit the whole concept without a moment of concern. It's much easier to adopt pat phrases about our rights and God-given privileges; the modern-day equivalent of Manifest Destiny. That would be a comfortable attitude to adopt for most of us. But we are reminded over and over in this book of the groups (human and non-human) who really paid the price for our freedoms.

Reading the book can leave one in a profoundly depressed state of mind and heart. It's too bad that the author didn't suggest more solutions to the problems he spotlights. After all we cannot simply discard or replace the culture we have inherited. We can only seek one-by-one to address the injustices and atrocities that the author has so eloquently described. ( )

Wonderfully insightful dissection of western culture, which is based on a creed of violence and force to facilitate unendling acquisition and exploitation of materials and beings, wreaking havoc on labor, indigenous peoples and the natural world. The actions and beliefs of the KKK are a microcosm of the larger society. Bringing down civilization as we know it is the solution. (Rigorous editing would both tighten and shorten this tome, increasing its effectiveness.) ( )

This book will cause you to not just think, but feel that is something is wrong with the way we are living. Something is sincerely wrong with our culture and the precarious civilization we have built. Derrick Jensen lays out an emotional plea to consider how hatred is not only rampant, but inherent in our civilization. He tears down old arguments and on top of the rubble he builds hope for a new and less violent world. READ THIS BOOK. ( )

Derrick Jensen manages to tackle the basic themes of our culture in the style of a 605-page letter from your brilliant best friend. This is Jensen's struggle to understand the roots of violence and oppression and his desperate longing for a new way of being.
-- Polly