Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.35 You Save: $10.65 (67%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.55 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World
Book Review: An idea whose time has come
Summary: 5 Stars
As a member of one of the hundreds of thousands of diverse non-governmental organizations (NGOs) listed in the database that forms an interactive online link [...] to Paul Hawken's book, Blessed Unrest, I was delighted to read about why and how this "largest movement in the world came into being." Comprised of three basic strands, "environmental activism, social justice, and indigenous cultures' resistance to globalization," this unruly movement is now poised to take center-stage in the world arena. How? According to Hawken, and this is his major purpose both for writing the book and establishing the database, it will occur through systemic networking among these diverse and autonomous NGOs, thus offering "solutions to disentangle what appear to be insoluble dilemmas: poverty, global climate change, terrorism, ecological degradation, polarization of income, loss of culture, and many more."
Hawken's book is a necessary first step outlining what must be done and why to ensure the continuing survival of humankind; his database is an ongoing legacy that will conceivably bring it about. About as far away from a top-down approach as you can get, Hawken's database employs an open-source platform designed to "be edited by the community it serves," thus increasing "the ability of the movement to connect and collaborate." Hawken has not furnished us with an assessment frozen in time; rather he has provided us with a vehicle that can adapt to a constantly changing biological and cultural landscape, which is why his contribution deserves the highest accolades possible.
Book Review: Critical perspectives, excellent positioning
Summary: 5 Stars
In a remarkably thorough (about half of this book comprises of an appendix that provides detailed definitions, citations and notes) and well-researched book (reads more like a collection of critical essays), Hawken weaves an excellent tapestry of issues surrounding development, social justice, and environment. Drawing heavily from history, Hawken manages to put key developments in context for providing an excellent argument on how the ongoing 'social movement without a name' has evolved. The gravity of the issues mentioned, the new and unique insights provided on events and personalities, and the detailed narration clearly gives this book a very serious tone (appropriately). Among the well-written chapters (essays), the one on civil disobedience stands out for the sheer unique insights provided on the thought evolution of greats like Gandhi and MLK. Without significant political posturing, Hawken discusses in a calm, methodical manner the issues that relate to social justice and development on multiple facets. An excellent , thought provoking read. Book Review: THE GOOD NEWS
Summary: 5 Stars
Paul Hawken - one of the great voices of light in our times - has given us a far ranging analysis of the challenges, and more importantly, the solutions - to which we all can contribute. What is extensively detailed here is the recognition that environmental wholeness and social justice are really one - and that the pervasive will of a diverse and deeply devoted collective impulse focused in the hearts of individuals massed over the breadth of the earth, which has truly coalesced into a decentralized movement, will inevitability achieve these necessary and long sought ends and an overdue transformation of the way we live together on our planet.
A masterpiece of clarity and concision, Hawken's insights into the development of the most important thinking, once again has elevated my thinking into the seminal understanding that "we" means all of us. A statement of more than hope, a justification for a positive view of the present moment, and really a visionary light on the path to a sustainable social reality.
Book Review: Blessed Unrest - "Re-imagining the Future"
Summary: 5 Stars
Blessed Unrest - "Re-imagining the Future"
That Paul Hawken is a careful and caring student of the environmental and social justice movements is apparent in the flowing text of Blessed Unrest. What is more striking is the extent to which Hawken has embedded the redemptive soulful invitations to be agents for change that Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, and King offered each one of us. The result is an inspired manifesto: Everyman has a role to play in shaping a world built on a reverence for all life and honoring what is noble and true in others as well as in ourselves. As the stunning appendix makes clear, there are millions of us who are hard at work (and play) re-imagining that future right now.
170 years ago in a cemetery next door to her home in Salem, Massachusetts, a young Sophia Peabody (soon to be the fianc?e of Nathaniel Hawthorne) read Emerson's just-published 1837 Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Address, "The American Scholar" (called "America's Intellectual Declaration of Independence" by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.). With much enthusiasm Sophia wrote to her brother in New Orleans that Emerson was "the Watchman that sits in the Tower of Thought, & whenever the Morning cometh to his far reaching eye, he announces it in a clear spirit tone to those who are sleeping beneath the mount of Vision." While the "sluggards" may have wished to keep sleeping, Emerson trumpeted, "No No! the MORNING COMETH!" Sophia next informed her brother of the effect of Emerson's company on their sister, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (the founder of the kindergarten movement in the US): "Elizabeth has replenished her horn at the fountain of his overflowing Dawn. You know her own is never empty. She has found out what she has herself, rather than received anything new, I suspect. Her faith in herself is freshened." Like an Emersonian Watchman, Paul Hawken acknowledges in simple terms what we are facing, noting that it is time to wake up. He then replenishes our horn by refreshing our faith in ourselves and in the countless sisters and brothers around the world who are putting shoulders to the wheel. I cannot wait for the movie.
Book Review: A Profound Gift
Summary: 5 Stars
Kudos to Paul Hawken. For all of us engaged with the "great work" of bringing about deep and lasting change on the planet, Paul has given us the profound gift of mirroring back the rich tapestry of who we are and what we are up to. In doing so, he's drawn the fundamental connections that link all the seemingly disparate parts of this unnamed movement into the tidal wave of human compassion that it represents.
The first 190 pages provide a rich but clearly and succinctly written overview of the major historical threads that are now weaving themselves together: the evolution of the environmental movement, the question of business vs. human rights, civil rights and non-violent protest, the rights of indigenous peoples, the rise of global capitalism and so on. There are no wasted words. Each chapter is blessedly short yet powerfully communicates an essential component of the growing movement. I learned something new on every page.
The final 100 pages provide a brief "taxonomy" of the more than 1 million organizations worldwide that are working to create a healthy, peaceful, just and sustainable world for all beings.
Get this book. Read it and pass it on to your family and friends. We all know how easy it is to touch despair in these troubling times. Blessed Unrest will ignite your hope and -- hopefully -- your action.