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Janet Biehl
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Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin 1st Edition

by Janet Biehl (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 31 ratings
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Murray Bookchin was not only one of the most significant and influential environmental philosophers of the twentieth century--he was also one of the most prescient. From industrial agriculture to nuclear radiation, Bookchin has been at the forefront of every major ecological issue since the very beginning, often proposing a solution before most people even recognized there was a problem.

Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin is the first biography of this groundbreaking environmental and political thinker. Author Janet Biehl worked as his collaborator and copyeditor for 19 years, editing his every word. Thanks to her extensive personal history with Bookchin as well as her access to his papers and archival research, Ecology or Catastrophe offers unique insight into his personal and professional life. Founder of the social ecology movement, Bookchin first started raising environmental issues in 1952. He foresaw global warming in the 1960s and even then argued that we should look into renewable energy sources as an alternative to fossil fuels. Wary of pesticides and other chemicals used in industrial agriculture, he was also an early advocate of small-scale organic farming, which has developed into the present locavore movement and the revival of organic markets. Even Occupy can trace the origins of its leaderless structure and general assemblies to the nonhierarchical organizational form Bookchin developed as a libertarian socialist.

Bookchin believed that social and ecological issues were deeply intertwined. Convinced that capitalism pushes businesses to maximize profits and ignore humanist concerns, he argued that eco-crises could be resolved by a new social arrangement. His solution was Communalism, a new form of libertarian socialism that he developed. An optimist and utopian, Bookchin believed in the potentiality for human beings to use reason to solve all social and ecological problems.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0199342482
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199342488
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  5. Publication date
    October 1, 2015
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
  8. Print length
    344 pages
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In Biehl's account, Bookchin's life is a story of the personal toll taken by fighting for these revolutionary ideas in a non-revolutionary era." --London Review of Books

"Biehl has an insider's view of Bookchin as both his collaborator and his lover, and she uses that insight to paint a detailed and lively picture of this important figure." -- Publishers Weekly

"Biehl's biography--for illuminating the emergence and contexts of these ideas--may very well be the best introduction we have to social ecology today. ... Janet Biehl has done a remarkable job bringing Bookchin "back to life" for new generations." --New Compass

The prescient Bookchin emerges in Janet Biehl's politics-heavy biography as incisive, inventive and pragmatic -- a refreshing contrast to today's environmental doom-mongers and techno-utopians alike." --Nature

"The first ... biography of Bookchin, it is well-written, exhaustively documented, and invites readers to traverse the full arc of his life, from his earliest days in New York City to his last in Burlington, Vermont." --Institute for Anarchist Studies

"Biehl's fluid prose makes Bookchin's traverse of the American leftist landscape accessible to the uninitiated. ... The biography is her expression of gratitude and homage, which, as Biehl demonstrates in these pages, Bookchin truly deserves." --Seven Days

"[A]n admirably thorough guide to both Bookchin's remarkable intellectual evolution and to the concrete issues and debates that informed it. It is also a well-written and highly accessible introduction to Bookchin and his ideas that promises to help keep his legacy alive for the next generation of political and environmental activists. ... [Biehl's] engaging and useful book has injected fresh life into Bookchin's vision for an ecological and libertarian left by demonstrating its relationship to vital questions and tactics and strategy that continue to be debated by present-day activists." --Environmental Politics

"Janet Biehl's meticulously researched biography splendidly captures Bookchin's intellectual and personal journey from youthful communist to mature anarchist. Bookchin influenced the thinking and actions of a generation but today his writings and insights are largely unknown. Biehl's terrific book will do much to overcome this illiteracy and introduce a new generation to one of the key intellectuals of our time." -- David Morris, Director, Public Good Initiative, Institute for Local Self-Reliance

"Murray Bookchin was irascible, human, brilliant, and above all relevant to our own time. This valuable book brings his work to life and takes us through his intellectual, activist and personal struggles between the late 1930s and the end of the 20th Century. An ecologist before the term was understood by most Americans and a sophisticated anarchist who recognized the importance of clear (but decentralized) organizational structure, Bookchin's story also offers a reminder of what it takes to live a committed life in our own time in history." -- Gar Alperovitz, Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, Co-Founder of The Democracy Collaborative

"Creative, charismatic, controversial and, many would add, more often than not a bit cantankerous, Murray Bookchin was without doubt one of the most significant anti-capitalist thinkers of the last century. Here in Janet Biehl's intimate and meticulously researched biography, we see his tumultuous life and times laid out in such a way as to illuminate the cross-currents and confusions that powered the rise of left-wing ecological movements over more than half a century. This biography deserves to be widely read for its contemporary relevance." --David Harvey, CUNY Graduate Center

"Janet Biehl has written an insightful and compelling biography of Bookchin, which not only illuminates the details of his fascinating life, but which also captures a vivid sense of his times: the Depression-haunted 1930s in New York where he grew up, the civil rights struggle, the counterculture of the late 1960s, the peace movements in the '70s and '80s, as well as the gradual emergence of a global ecological consciousness of the past few decades." --The Vancouver Sun

"Provides a productive starting point for considering Bookchin's legacy." --Jacobin

"Janet Biehl's biography of Bookchin is a very readable account of his long involvement in various struggles of the US left..." --LINKS: International Journal of Socialist Renewal

Book Description

The compelling biography of revolutionary social ecologist Murray Bookchin.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (October 1, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 344 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199342482
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199342488
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.3 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 31 ratings

About the author

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Janet Biehl

Janet Biehl

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Janet Biehl (b. 1953) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and educated at Wesleyan University and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. She works as a freelance copyeditor for major book publishers and is also a translator and pen-and-ink artist.

In 1986 she met the social ecologist Murray Bookchin (b. 1921) and the following year moved to Vermont to collaborate with him. He became her mentor and partner. As a social ecologist, she wrote books and articles advocating radical democracy and an ecological reconstruction of society. After he died in 2006, she began work on his biography. "Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin" was published by Oxford University Press on October 1, 2015.

Bookchin's work has influenced the Kurdish freedom movement, for which Biehl is a sympathizer. She translates books on Kurdish issues from German into English, including "Democratic Autonomy in North Kurdistan" (New Compass Press, 2013) and "Revolution in Rojava" (Pluto Press, 2016). She is currently translating the three-volume memoirs of Sakine Cansiz, of which volume 1 is published by Pluto in April 2018.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
31 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Bruce Lerro
5.0 out of 5 stars Radical Working-class hero
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2015
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Looking for a working class hero? Janet Biehl’s wonderful biography of Murray Bookchin has much for working class people to be proud of. Biehl tells the story of how in the 1930’s Murray’s unstable home life and his erratic attendance in school did not stop him from being a self-educated revolutionary who was drawing crowds on the street corners of the Bronx when he was 13. No academic intellectual, he worked for 5 years in a foundry, organizing workers. This book tells the tale of his political evolution from Stalinism to Trotskyism and eventually his conversion to anarchism. Murray was at least ten years ahead of his time, writing a book on ecology as early as 1952.

The second half of the book tells of Murray’s critical involvement with the New Left, social ecology, anti-nuclear politics and his disillusionment with anarchism. For anyone who does not like reading or learning about history, this book is at once not only a political biography but a chronicle of his rise and fall of left wing movements from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. His power as a thinker and a speaker led to his eventual work as a full time professor even though he had not even graduated from high school.

From reading this book, as well as from my own fleeting personal encounters with him, Murray Bookchin was one of the few revolutionaries whose personal warmth, life and commitment embodied the new world he wanted to build. The reason for his disillusionment with anarchism has much to teach us about the limitations of the ecology movement today as well as with the Occupy Movement.

Most of the book is easy to read and I read it like it was a novel. Biehl’s footnotes are informative without being needlessly cluttered. It is written with sensitivity and intelligence without being academic in the worst sense of the word. Neither is it written as journalists write, with cutsie-pie titles of chapters and cheap rhetoric tricks. I was disappointed with the title, which I don’t think does justice to the book itself. If I would retitle it, it would be: “Radical Social Ecology: The Life and Times of a Radical Working Class Hero”.

This book has heart and soul and shows the power of a working class person to overcome adversity and maintain a steady optimism through the highs and lows of 20th century radical American history.
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Lorand Szakacs
5.0 out of 5 stars Also a history of the decline of radical politics
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book could also be read as an account of the decline of radical politics. A reality that is both depressing, and oddly serene—at least to me—because now we find ourselves in an era when the necessity for radical reorganization of society is more needed than ever, against an adversary more strong than ever. To this end Murray Bookchin's work will be invaluable, lest we lose the practice of rigorous, insightful, innovative critique, and fall victims to narcissistic self-aggrandizing routine.

Janet Biehl managed to write about Murray Bookchin in such an evocative, and compassionate manner, that it leaves the reader with the distinct sense that they definitely know who he was—foolish inference to draw on part of the reader, of course, given that you could never reduce the life of a human being to such a short book.

Given that it's a biography of a avowed revolutionary, utopian theorist one can always expect a hefty dose of politics, but a politics with such clear vision that even the most cynical of us could easily embrace. It really is a question of ecology or catastrophe.

I will spare the reader of this review of great detail, but suffice it to say that not only do you see Murray change over time, but the entire world around in. The endless struggle pushing the lone revolutionary to the brink of despair to the point that he had to retreat in the study of history to find solace. That should tell you more about the world, than it did about the one person.

Also, incredibly interesting tidbit. Had I read this book a few months ago then Bernie Sanders' betrayal of his voter-base would not have surprised me at all. This is what I found out about his first election as mayor:
On March 4, 1981, Burlington elected him [Bernie] mayor—by a margin of ten votes out of more than 9,600 cast.15 (“Ten anarchist votes!” Murray would say. “And I know who they were!”). Only to go later to collude with big business interests in the area to build monstrous waterfront projects, wood-chipper fueled power-plants, and then a centralization of power into the mayor's office, away from local democratic assemblies of the people.

All in all, read this book. It is extremely important you do so.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The Life and Evolution of a Brilliant Social Theorist
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2015
Verified Purchase
Murray Bookchin was a profoundly original thinker and a brilliant social theorist. This book traces the thought process through the evolution of his his ideas. Many theorists develop their ideas at a young age, and spend their years in academia defending what they wrote. Bookchin, writing outside academia, constantly evolved and developed his thoughts, and never stopped until he died.

Biehl gives a great chronological overview of Bookchin's youth, intellectual development, political activism, and importance to various movements as his work gained notice. And, because she lived with him, she gives a terrific understanding of his life after she became part of it, because she was there.

If I have any issue with the book, it is when it shifts from a biography of Bookchin to a memoir of Biehl. Sometimes there is a little TMI in that regard. But Biehl is an important part of the life of Murray Bookchin, and this is a minor quibble compared to the enormous contribution the book makes to understanding Bookchin's evolution, and his ideas himself. She explains and expound upon his positions very clearly and well. As a student of Social Ecology, and one who knew and studied with Bookchin personally, I found, 10 years after his death, that I was able to reconnect to both the times and Murray's ideas. I also found that I actually understand some of his ideas better for having read Biehl's cogent summaries of his analyses and positions.

Biehl captures Murray's thinking behind his actions, and his theories, extremely well in this biography. She had a unique perspective on Bookchin's life, as his editor and partner, and wrote the biography only she could write.
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Top reviews from other countries

Randall Barnhart
5.0 out of 5 stars The Life of Murray Bookchin
Reviewed in Canada on July 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
One of the greatest philosophers of the environment, there are very few primary sources dealing with his life and the source of his thought. This book, written by a colleague of Bookchin’s, details his life on the Left. Very interesting reading.
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Anthony Lapointe
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book! Best bio I've ever read!
Reviewed in Canada on March 31, 2016
Verified Purchase
Murray bookchin was a true visionary and spot right on many fundamental problem that challenge the human race and the biosphere. His proposal for a new society seem like what we need right now.

Janet Biehl made me travel back in time, just like I was sitting and living the same thing that Bookchin was living. Her capacity to summarize complex political-historical event that shaped the left really amazed me.

This book is a must for any person concern with the ecological catastrophe that we have on our hand.
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