George Monbiot

In this collection of essays on money, religion, war, power, culture and nature, the author explains why we are heading into an uncertain future in which peace and sound politics are paramount to our survival. From his attack on the countries that deny the existence of global warming to his rally against the injustices of the Iraq war, the author turns his gaze on the aspects of modernity that most endanger the prevailing world order. With characteristic precision, he offers unassailable proof that the desecration of the resources on which we all depend threatens the peace, equality - and very existence - of humanity. This book is an urgent wake-up call that we cannot afford to ignore. -- Publisher details.

Having made a hugely significant contribution to the increasingly irrefutable, if alarming, diagnosis of the ills of early 21st century consumerist culture and its free-market myths, George Monbiot sets out now with this new book to offer something more constructive, a set of proposals – political, democratic, economic, environmental – that might effect the cultural change that many in the West (not to mention those on the outside of the West looking in) now want but scarcely know how to make happen.'The Age of Consent' is provocative, brave, even utopian. But, with most of the 20th century's Big Ideas dead in the gutter, it's time for a book that can be a touchstone for real debate about the political and economic presumptions and prejudices on which our society has rested since World War II.

George Monbiot uncovers what many have suspected but few have been able to prove: that corporations have become so powerful they now threaten the foundations of democratic government. Many of the stories he recounts have never been told before, and they could scarcely be more embarrassing to a government that claims to act on behalf of all of us. Captive State is a devastating indictment of the corruption which which our political leaders have succumbed. (via author's website)

"George Monbiot explores a new, positive environmentalism that shows how damaged ecosystems on land and at sea can be restored, and how this restoration can revitalize and enrich our lives. Challenging what he calls his "ecological boredom," Monbiot weaves together a beautiful and riveting tale of wild places, wildlife, and wild people. Roaming the hills of Britain and the forests of Europe, kayaking off the coast of Wales with dolphins and seabirds, he seeks out the places that still possess something of the untamed spirit he would like to resurrect. He meets people trying to restore lost forests and bring back missing species and explores astonishing evidence that certain species, not just humans, have the power to shape the physical landscape. This process of rewilding, Monbiot argues, offers an alternative to a silent spring: the chance of a raucous summer in which ecological processes resume and humans draw closer to the natural world"--Provided by publisher.

"A thrilling new route to a better society A toxic ideology of extreme competition and individualism has come to dominate our world. It misrepresents human nature, destroying hope and common purpose. Only a positive vision can replace it, a new story that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better future. George Monbiot shows how new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators. He shows how we can build on these findings to create a new politics: a "politics of belonging." Both democracy and economic life can be radically reorganized from the bottom up, enabling us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society. Urgent and passionate, Out of the Wreckage provides the hope and clarity required to change the world"-- "Maps a thrilling new route to a better society: the political story that will replace the failed narratives wrecking our world. Today, our lives are dominated by an ideology of extreme competition and individualism. This misrepresents human nature, destroys hope and common purpose. But we cannot replace it without a positive vision, one that re-engages people in politics and lights a path to a better world. George Monbiot explains how communities can be rebuilt, with the help of a new "politics of belonging". He shows how to rescue politics through a radical redesign of elections and political rules, coupled with novel forms of direct democracy. A new economic model will allow communities to own their crucial resources and give people control of public investment, beyond the market or the state. This vision can be realised through spectacular new models of political organising, that overcome established power through mutual aid, operating on a grand scale. Urgent, and passionate, Out of the Wreckage provides the hope and purpose required to change the world"--

"Leading political and environmental commentator on where we have gone wrong, and what to do about it. "Here are some of the things I try to fight: undemocratic power, corruption, deception of the public, environmental destruction, injustice, inequality and the misallocation of resources, waste, denial, the libertarianism which grants freedom to the powerful at the expense of the powerless, undisclosed interests, complacency." George Monbiot is one of the most vocal, and eloquent, critics of the current consensus. In How Did We Get into this Mess?, which collects Monbiot's journalism over the last seven years, he brilliantly anatomises the state we are in: the devastation of our environment, the crisis of inequality, the corporate takeover of Nature, our obsessions with growth and profit and the decline of the political debate over what to do. While his diagnosis of the problems in front of us is clear-sighted and reasonable, he also develops solutions to challenge this politics of fear"--

A compelling standalone dark fantasy set in a gritty post-WWI Britain which has been overrun by the fae, from the award-winning author of Altered Carbon. The Great War was supposed to be the war to end all wars—and maybe it would have been, had an even greater, otherworldly foe not arisen to extinguish the conflict. Overnight, as guns blazed away in France and Flanders, village after village in the quiet British countryside were swallowed by the Forest. And within the Forest lurk the Huldu—an ancient fae race, monstrous in their inhumanity, who have decided that mankind’s ascendency over the world can endure no longer. Enter Duncan Silver. Scarred by the war, fueled by a rage deeper than the trenches in which he once fought, Duncan is determined to show the Huldu that the world is not theirs for the taking. Armed with a cut-down trench gun filled with iron shot and a deadly iron knife, Duncan will stop at nothing to return the children the Huldu have stolen from the arms of their families. No matter how many Huldu he may have to slaughter along the way. But when he is hired by a mother to return her four-year-old daughter, Miriam—taken by the Huldu six months past and replaced with a Changeling—all hell breaks loose. Miriam is a pawn in a much bigger game for dominance than Duncan ever expected, and several long-buried secrets from his past are about to be violently resurrected.