Murray Bookchin
Personal Information
Description
Murray Bookchin (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006) was an American libertarian socialist, political and social philosopher, speaker and writer. For much of his life he called himself an anarchist, although as early as 1995 he privately renounced his identification with the anarchist movement. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics, philosophy, history, and urban affairs as well as ecology. Bookchin was an anti-capitalist and vocal advocate of the decentralisation of society. His writings on libertarian municipalism, a theory of face-to-face, grassroots democracy, had an influence on the Green Movement and anti-capitalist direct action groups such as Reclaim the Streets. He was a staunch critic of biocentric philosophies such as deep ecology and the biologically deterministic beliefs of sociobiology, and his criticisms of "new age" Greens such as Charlene Spretnak contributed to the divisions that affected the American Green movement in the 1990s.
Books
Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism
This book asks—and tries to answer—several basic questions that affect all Leftists today. Will anarchism remain a revolutionary social movement or become a chic boutique lifestyle subculture? Will its primary goals be the complete transformation of a hierarchical, class, and irrational society into a libertarian communist one? Or will it become an ideology focused on personal well-being, spiritual redemption, and self-realization within the existing society? In an era of privatism, kicks, introversion, and post-modernist nihilism, Murray Bookchin forcefully examines the growing nihilistic trends that threaten to undermine the revolutionary tradition of anarchism and co-opt its fragments into a harmless personalistic, yuppie ideology of social accommodation that presents no threat to the existing powers that be. Includes the essay, "The Left That Was." (Source: [AK Press](
Urbanization Without Cities
Murray Bookchin introduces provocative ideas about the nature of community and what it means to be a fully empowered citizen. He believes that the tensions that exists between rural and urban society can be a vital source of human creativity, thereby defining a new, richly imaginative politics which can help us recover the power of the individual, restore the positive values and quality of urban life, and reclaim the ideal of the city as a major creative force in our civilization. What is envisaged is an environmentally oriented politics, a new ecological ethics and a citizenry that will restore the balance between city and country and, ultimately, between humanity and nature. Murray Bookchin is a pioneer thinker and writer and has been active in the ecology movement for more than thirty years. He is widely regarded as one whose ideas are decades ahead of his time. Professor Emeritus at the School of Environment 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. (Source: [University of Chicago Press](
Remaking Society
According to Murray Bookchin, a humane solution to the climate crisis—a crisis he was among the first to identify—will require replacing industrial capitalism with an egalitarian, ecological society, decentralized democratic communities, and sustainable technologies like solar power, organic agriculture, and humanly scaled industries. Since he first penned these ideas, our situation has only gotten worse, and people want answers. Drawing on rich traditions of ecological science, anthropology, history, utopian philosophy, and ethics, Remaking Society offers today's environmentalists a coherent framework for social and ecological reconstruction. This pioneering work on nature and society provides readers with clear strategies for averting disaster.
The Ecology of Freedom
"Using a synthesis of ecology, anthropology, philosophy and political theory, this book traces our society's conflicting legacies of freedom and domination, from the first emergence of human culture to today's global capitalism. The theme of Murray Bookchin's grand historical narrative is straightforward: environmental, economic and political devastation are born at the moment that human societies begin to organize themselves hierarchically. And, despite the nuance and detail of his arguments, the lesson to be learned is just as basic: our nightmare will continue until hierarchy is dissolved and human beings develop more sane, sustainable and egalitarian social structures." "The Ecology of Freedom is indispensable reading for anyone who's tired of living in a world where everything, and everyone, is an exploitable resource. It includes a brand new preface by the author."--BOOK JACKET.
The Spanish Anarchists
The seminal history of Spanish anarchism: from its earliest inception to the organizations that claimed over two million members on the eve of the 1936 Revolution.
Post-scarcity anarchism
"In this series of related essays, Murray Bookchin balances his ecological and anarchist vision with the promising opportunities of a 'post-scarcity' era. Surpassing the constraints of Marxist political economy--which was rooted in an era of material scarcity and could not forsee the sweeping changes ahead--Bookchin argues that the tools necessary for the self-administration of a complex, industrial societyhave already been developed and have greatly altered our revolutionary landscape. Technological advances were made during the 20th century which expanded production greatly, but in the pursuit of corporate profit and at the expense of human need, workers' control and ecological sustainability. Through direct control on industry, and by incorporating an ecological and utopian vision for society, the working class can now dispell the myth that the state, hierarchical social relations and political parties (vanguards) are necessary to their struggle for freedom. Bookchin's analysis, rooted in the realities of contemporary society, remains refreshingly pragmatic."--Jacket.