Resources

This is a pretty good-sized list but if you were to just read Deep Green Resistance, Sacred Economics and whatever permaculture book is most appropriate for your region you’ll already have a better understanding of things than 99% of Americans.  I can’t stand some of the New Age analogies Charles Eisenstein uses, like the idea that we’re just now entering adulthood as a species, that the industrial revolution was an adolescent growth spurt, that hunter gatherers are still “in the womb”, and that a growth economy was “perhaps appropriate” for our childhood phase since children grow.  This teleology crap is a serious problem.  There was never anything okay about any of this.  However, his book remains the clearest explanation of alternative economic ideas that I’ve come across.  Deep Green Resistance isn’t exactly perfect either but, like I said, all of these bother me in some way.  If you’re totally new to these ideas you may want to start with documentaries instead.  When you actually see the visuals it’s a lot more convincing.  The Zeitgeist movies have some of the most eloquent criticisms of the status quo.  I would recommend turning them off as soon as they start getting into solutions though.  A Farm For the Future is the one that really got me interested in permaculture, and END:CIV and What a Way To Go are pretty good big picture summaries.  So 3 books and a few documentaries for a quick overview of things.  Most people have at least enough free time for that.  Even this full list isn’t close to everything that I’ve wasted my time with. 

 

 

Books on primitivist philosophy:

Deep Green Resistance by Lierre Keith, Aric McBay and Derrick Jensen

Endgame by Derrick Jensen

Unlearn, Rewild by Miles Olson

Anti-tech Revolution: Why and How by Theodore Kaczynski

Underminers by Keith Farnish

The Moneyless Manifesto by Mark Boyle

 

Books on alternative economics:

Sacred Economics by Charles Eisenstein

The Wealth of Nature by John Michael Greer

What Matters? By Wendell Berry

Occupy World Street by Ross Jackson

 

Books on permaculture and sustainable land management:

The Resilient Farm and Homestead by Ben Falk

Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard

Farming the Woods by Ken Mudge

The Carbon Farming Solution by Eric Toensmeier

Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier

Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway

Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual by Bill Mollison

Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture by Sepp Holzer

The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka

Cows Save the Planet by Judith Schwartz

Water in Plain Sight by Judith Schwartz

Holistic Management by Allan Savory

Tending the Wild by M. Kat Anderson

Mycellium Running by Paul Stamets

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations by David Montgomery

Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy by George Wuerthner

 

Books on simple living:

Native American Architecture by Peter Nabokov

The Natural House by Daniel Chiras

Dwellings by Paul Oliver

Home Work by Lloyd Kahn

The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins

The Rocket Mass Heater Builder’s Guide by Erica Wisner

Northeast Foraging by Leda Meredith

Naked into the Wilderness by John McPherson

Grave Matters by Mark Harris

The Business of Baby by Jennifer Margulis

 

Books on resistance movements:

Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy

Secession by Thomas Naylor

Rebels Against the Future by Kirkpatrick Sale

Green is the New Red by Will Potter

This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed by Charles E. Cobb Jr.

Our Word is Our Weapon by Subcomandante Marcos

Don’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg by Ben Stewart

Antifa: The Anti-fascist Handbook by Mark Bray

Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA by Richard English

Demanding the Impossible by Peter Marshall

 

Books on anthropology:

The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott

The Biggest Estate on Earth by Bill Gammage

The Old Way by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes by Daniel Everett

The Hadza by Frank Marlowe

Noble Savages by Napoleon Chagnon

Ancient Futures by Helena Norberg-Hodge

Astrotheology and Shamanism by Jan Irvin

Dreamtime by Hans Peter Duerr

Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

The Wayfinders by Wade Davis

Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond

Collapse by Jared Diamond

The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond

1491 by Charles Mann

1493 by Charles Mann

Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches by Marvin Harris

Hierarchy in the Forest by Christopher Boehm

Moral Origins by Christopher Boehm

 

Other books on history, politics and social problems:

Drug Crazy by Mike Gray

Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari

A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen

Lies Across America by James Loewen

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

The Many-headed Hydra by Peter Linebaugh

On the justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill

The New Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins

Overthrow by Stephen Kinzer

Blood and Earth by Kevin Bales

Rockefeller Medicine Men by E. Richard Brown

Republican Gomorrah by Max Blumenthal

Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal

C Street by Jeff Sharlet

Dark Money by Jane Mayer

Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant

Confronting Collapse by Mike Ruppert

Reinventing Collapse by Dmitry Orlov

 

Other books on environmental issues:

Where the Wild Things Were by William Stolzenburg

Rewilding the World by Caroline Frazer

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Colbert

Silent Snow by Marla Cone

Conservation Refugees by Mark Dowie

The Virtues of ignorance by Bill Vitek

 

Documentaries:

END:CIV- Resist or Die

Occupied Cascadia

Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective

A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity

Green Gold (John D. Liu documentary)

The Economics of Happiness

What a Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire

A Farm for the Future

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

Occupation 101

Palestine is Still the Issue

The Iron Wall

Zeitgeist: The Movie*

Zeitgeist: Addendum*

Zeitgeist: Moving Forward*

The Pharmacratic Inquisition

Collapse with Mike Ruppert

The Century of the Self

The Union: The Business Behind Getting High

Run From the Cure: the Rick Simpson Story

What if Cannabis Cured Cancer?

Pedigree Dogs Exposed

Outfoxed

 Garbage Warrior

The Disappearing Male

The Business of Being Born

The Light Bulb Conspiracy

Food, Inc.

The World According to Monsanto

Blue Gold

Blackfish

The Doctor, the Depleted Uranium and the Dying Children

How the Kids Took Over

Iraq for Sale

The Ground Truth

*I have to remind everyone that I do not agree at all with the solutions proposed by the Zeitgeist movement.  In my opinion, only their criticisms of the status quo are worth listening to.

 

Internet:

Permaculturenews.org

Geofflawton.com

Therealnews.com

Democracynow.org

Topdocumentaryfilms.com

Extraenvironmentalist.com

Livingstoneage.com

Theanarchistlibrary.org

Primitivism.com

Crimethinc.com

Opensourceecology.org

Rob Kall’s Bottom Up Radio Show

Resistance Radio with Derrick Jensen

Anarchy Radio with John Zerzan

The C-Realm Podcast

 

YouTube channels:

Primitive Technology

peakmoment

DeepGreenResistance

 

I have no affiliation with any of the groups listed.  No assumptions should be made about their views based on mine or vice versa.  No profit will come to me from the sale of any of these books or DVDs.