Authors

Derrick Jensen

Indulge in a book or CD
Author events
Get the latest news
What others are saying...
More from Derrick

Hailed as the philosopher poet of the ecological movement, Derrick Jensen is the widely acclaimed author of Endgame, A Language Older Than Words, The Culture of Make Believe (a finalist for the 2003 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize), and Walking on Water, among many others.

Jensen's writing has been described as "breaking and mending the reader's heart" (Publishers Weekly). Author, teacher, activist, and leading voice of uncompromising dissent, he regularly stirs auditoriums across the country with revolutionary spirit. He lives in Crescent City, California.

Always provoking critical thought as he turns how we see the world upside down, it is with pleasure that PM has published Derrick Jensen's books, and are now partnering together in a new imprint, Flashpoint Press.

Purchasing Links

Fiction:

Non-Fiction:

Spoken Word:

Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet
Editors: Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith
Publisher: PM Press/Flashpoint
ISBN: 978-1-60486-674-2
Published September 2012
Format: Paperback
Size: 9 by 6
Page count: 288 Pages
Subjects: Politics/Activism/Nature/Environmentalism
$20.00

Industrial civilization is devouring the planet and the future. The oceans are acidifying, whole mountains have been laid to waste, and the climate is teetering into chaos. Every biome is approaching collapse. And fifty years of environmentalism hasn’t even slowed the rate of destruction. Yet environmentalists are not considering strategies that might actually prevent the looming biocide we are facing.

Until Earth at Risk.

Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet is an annual conference featuring environmental thinkers and activists who are willing to ask the hardest questions about the seriousness of our situation. The conference is convened by Derrick Jensen, acclaimed author of Endgame, who has argued that we need a resistance movement against civilization itself.

The eleven people in this volume present an impassioned critique of the dominant culture from every angle: William Catton explains ecological overshoot; Thomas Linzey gives a fiery call for community sovereignty; Jane Caputi exposes patriarchy’s mythic dismemberment of the Goddess; Aric McBay discusses historically effective resistance strategies; and Stephanie McMillan takes down capitalism. One by one, they build an unassailable case that we need to deprive the rich of their ability to steal from the poor and the powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. These speakers offer their ideas on what can be done to build a real resistance movement, one that includes all levels of direct action—action that can actually match the scale of the problem.

Earth at Risk includes Derrick Jensen, Arundhati Roy, William Catton, Jr., Rikki Ott, Thomas Linzey, Gail Dines, Jane Caputi, Waziyatawin, Aric McBay, Stephanie McMillan, Lierre Keith, and Nora Barrows-Friedman. This collection is sure to inform, engage, and inspire.

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Earth at Risk: Building a Resistance Movement to Save the Planet (DVD)
Editors: Derrick Jensen and Lierre Keith
Publisher: PM Press/Flashpoint
ISBN: 978-1-60486-688-9 UPC: 760137535096
Published July 2012
Format: 4 x DVD
DVD Format: NTSC
Language: English
Package: 7.5 by 5.5
Length: 7 hours
Subjects: Politics/Activism/Nature/Environmentalism
$20.00

Until Earth at Risk.

The eleven people in this film present an impassioned critique of the dominant culture from every angle: William Catton explains ecological overshoot; Thomas Linzey gives a fiery call for community sovereignty; Jane Caputi exposes patriarchy’s mythic dismemberment of the Goddess; Aric McBay discusses historically effective resistance strategies; and Stephanie McMillan takes down capitalism. One by one, they build an unassailable case that we need to deprive the rich of their ability to steal from the poor and the powerful of their ability to destroy the planet. These speakers offer their ideas on what can be done to build a real resistance movement, one that includes all levels of direct action—action that can actually match the scale of the problem. Earth at Risk includes Derrick Jensen, Arundhati Roy, William Catton, Jr., Rikki Ott, Thomas Linzey, Gail Dines, Jane Caputi, Waziyatawin, Aric McBay, Stephanie McMillan, Lierre Keith, and Nora Barrows-Friedman. This collection is sure to inform, engage, and inspire.

Produced by Jai Jai Noire.

Watch the traier!

Buy DVD now | Read reviews

The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad
by Derrick Jensen & Stephanie McMillan
Published: September 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60486-596-7
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 160
Dimensions: 5.5 by 8
Subjects: Politics-Activism, Family-Relationships
$14.95

The six women of the Knitting Circle meet every week to talk, eat cake, and make fabulous sweaters. Until the night they realize that they’ve all survived rape—and that not one of their assailants has suffered a single consequence. Enough is enough. The Knitting Circle becomes The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad. They declare open season on rapists, with no licenses and no bag limits. With needles as their weapons, their retribution begins.

A cop is stabbed through a doughnut hole and into his heart. A country-western singer is found with knitting needles jammed into both ears and his no-means-yes hit song playing. A pedophile priest is killed in the sacristy. As the Circle swells, perpetrators learn to shudder at the sight of business women with knitted briefcases, students with knitted backpacks, roller derby queens with knitted kneepads. They also push back, as organizations of men—from the Chamber of Commerce to the Department of Agriculture to the Autonomous Federated Association of Coalitions of Anarchists for Spontaneous Insurrectionary Sexual Freedom (the AFACASISF, with their unique musical style: deathvomitnoise)—issue statements against the Knitting Circle. More sinister is MAWAR (Men Against Women Against Rape), with their Bible Scrabble and their beefcake Jesus calendar—and a plot to stop the Knitting Circle.

Will the Knitting Circle triumph? Or will Officer Flint learn to knit in time to infiltrate it? Will Nick the male ally brave Daisy’s Craft Barn to secure more weapons for the women? Will Marilyn put down her teenage attitude and pick up her knitting needles? Will Circle member Jasmine find true love with MAWAR’s Zebediah?

The Knitting Circle Rapist Annihilation Squad is a novel both darkly comic and deadly serious, a genre of one where Monty Python meets Valerie Solanas.

Praise:

"Derrick Jensen is a public intellectual who both breaks and mends the reader's heart." —Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet For A Small Planet

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture
Author: Derrick Jensen
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-60486-299-7
Published: September 2011
Format: Paperback
Size: 9 by 6
Page count: 300 Pages
Subjects: Philosophy, Politics
$20.00

From Derrick Jensen, acclaimed author of Endgame and The Culture of Make Believe, comes a prescient, thought-provoking collection of interviews with ten leading writers, philosophers, teachers, and activists.

To function in this society, we are asked to live by lies: that humans have the right to take what they want from the earth without giving back, that knowledge is limited to that which can be quantified, that corporations and governments know what is best for our future. Our instinctive outrage at environmental collapse, political conspiracy, and corporate corruption is stifled by the double-speak of popular opinion telling us that the "progress" of civilization demands unquestioning allegiance to those in power. But the brave voices in Truths Among Us seek to help us acknowledge the values we know in our hearts are right—and inspire within us the courage to act on them.

Among those who share their wisdom here is acclaimed sociologist Stanley Aronowitz, who shows us that science is but one lens through which we can discover knowledge. Luis Rodriguez, poet and peacemaker, asks us to embrace gang members as people instead of stereotypes, while the brilliant Judith Herman helps us gain a deeper understanding of the psychology of abusers in whatever form they may take. Paul Stamets reveals the power of fungi, whose intelligence, like that of so many nonhumans, is often ignored. And writer Richard Drinnon reminds us that our spiritual paths need not be narrowed by the limiting mythologies of Western civilization.

Following How Shall I Live My Life? and Resistance Against Empire, Jensen's third collection of interviews reinforces a simple premise with which he has long challenged his readers: if we shut our ears and eyes to the cacophony of consumption-oriented distractions and pause to listen to the wisdom of our own hearts, the truths among us will reveal themselves.

Interviewees include: George Gerbner, Stanley Aronowitz, Luis Rodriguez, Judith Herman, John Keeble, Richard Drinnon, Paul Stamets, Marc Ian Barasch, Martín Prechtel, and Jane Caputi.

Praise:

"Derrick Jensen is the green thinker and writer who’s out to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear." —Utne Reader, "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World"

"Derrick Jensen is a man driven to stare without flinching at the baleful design of our culture... His analysis of our culture's predilection for hatred and destruction will rattle your bones." —Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Mischief in the Forest: A Yarn Yarn
By Derrick Jensen
Illustrated by: Stephanie McMillan
Published: June 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60486-081-8
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 40
Dimensions: 11 by 8.5
Subjects: Children's Picture Book, Environmentalism
$14.95

Old Mrs. Johnson lives alone in the forest and loves to knit sweaters and mittens for her grandchildren in the city. One day, when returning from a visit to the city, her solitude comes to an end when her mischievous forest neighbors reveal themselves in a delightfully colorful fashion. Who took her yarn, and what have they done with it?

The colorful mystery is solved when the birds, rabbits, snakes, trees, and other dwellers of Mrs. Johnson's neighborhood are seen playing with the yarn. Suddenly the forest doesn't seem so lonely, and the visiting grandkids take great delight getting to know the inhabitants of Grandma's forest. This picture book is a lesson for both young and old to connect with one's surroundings and embrace the role of good neighbors with the rest of the natural world, whether in the city or in the forest.

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Resistance Against Empire
Edited by Derrick Jensen
Published: June 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60486-046-7
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 300
Dimensions: 9 by 6
Subjects: Politics, History
$20.00

A scathing indictment of U. S. domestic and foreign policy, this collection of interviews gathers incendiary insights from 10 of today’s most experienced and knowledgeable activists. Whether it’s Ramsey Clark describing the long history of military invasion, Alfred McCoy detailing the relationship between CIA activities and the increase in the global heroin trade, Stephen Schwartz reporting the obscene costs of nuclear armaments, or Katherine Albrecht tracing the horrors of the modern surveillance state, this investigation of global governance is sure to inform, engage, and incite readers.

Full list of Interviewees:

Stephen Schwartz, author of Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U. S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940, is a guest scholar at the Brooking Institute and the director of the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project.
Katherine Albrecht is the director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), and is widely recognized as one of the world's leading experts on consumer privacy.
Robert McChesney is the author of seven books concerned with the contradiction between a for-profit corporate media and the communications requirements of a democratic society.
J.W. Smith is the author of The World’s Wasted Wealth and is the director of The Institute for Cooperative Capitalism.
Juliet Schor is co-founder of the Center for a New American Dream, and has written three books focused on trends in work and leisure, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic justice.
Alfred McCoy is the author of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia and was winner of the Grant Goodman Prize in 2001.
Christian Parenti is the author of Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, a critique the “incipient American police state.”
Kevin Bales is an expert on modern slavery and is the author of Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Ramsey Clark was Attorney General under Lyndon Johnson, playing an important role in the history of the Civil Rights movement and continuing on as unstinting critic of US foreign policy.
Anuradha Mittal is an internationally renowned expert on trade, development, human rights, democracy, and agriculture issues, and is the founder of The Oakland Institute, which works to ensure public participation and democratic debate on crucial economic and social policy issues.

Praise:

"Derrick Jensen is a rare and original voice of sanity in a chaotic world. He has wisdom and wit, grace and style, and is a wonderful guide to a good life beautifully lived." —Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

"Jensen has compiled an ambitious compendium of truly important issues, and the book is an eye-opening and educational read." —Political Media Review on Resistance Against Empire

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Lives Less Valuable
By Derrick Jensen
ISBN: 978-1-60486-045-0
Published September 2009
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 224 pages
Size: 8 by 5
Subjects: Fiction/Thriller
$18.00

At the heart of a city, a river is dying, children have cancer, and people are burning with despair. From the safe distance that wealth buys, a corporation called Vexcorp counts these lives as another expense on a balance sheet. But that distance is about to collapse.

Malia is an activist who has fiercely fought the everyday atrocities of environmental racism. After years of watching countless children die, she’s lost faith in the possibility of systemic reform. Dennis is a lawyer who still believes that if enough people have the correct information they will do the right thing. Eddie is a young street thug torn by a chaos of grief and rage at his little sister’s death. And Larry Gordon is Vexcorp’s CEO.

Their lives converge when Eddie mugs Malia. Her scornful comparison of Eddie to Vexcorp triggers a storm inside him. That storm only clears when he identifies the real agent of his pain: Larry Gordon. Injury requires justice, so Eddie kidnaps Gordon and assembles a rough court to try him for murder. He picks Malia to be the judge because she knows the facts and because, as Eddie says, “You want this as bad as me.” As bystanders become involved and time runs out, Malia is forced to make grueling moral decisions between survival and loyalty, safety and courage, agency and despair.

Derrick Jensen has written a novel as compelling as it is necessary: with our planet under serious threat, Malia’s decisions face us all.

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Songs of the Dead
by Derrick Jensen
ISBN: 978-1-60486-044-3
Published March 2009
Format: Paperback
Size: 5 by 8
Page count: 352 Pages
Subjects: Fiction, Thriller, Politics
$20.00

A serial killer stalks the streets of Spokane, acting out a misogynist script from the dark heart of this culture. Across town, a writer named Derrick has spent his life tracking the reasons--political, psychological, spiritual--for the sadism of modern civilization. And through the grim nights, Nika, a trafficked woman, tries to survive the grinding violence of prostitution. Their lives, and the forces propelling them, are about to collide.

Derrick’s current project is a book called Possession, which asks the ontological question of who is responsible for the culture of domination that’s destroying the earth. Who actually benefits from a dead planet, the endgame that’s fast approaching? What if the answer is something way bigger than humans? Meanwhile, with motivations opposite to Derrick’s, the serial killer is asking much the same question of the women he kidnaps as his final act of possession--and Nika is next.

Derrick’s metaphysical explorations suddenly take on more urgency as visions both terrifying and sacred begin to intrude, and past and future collapse without warning. All Derrick knows is Nika’s name and her impending death. The only person who believes him is his partner Allison, a woman with both strengths and scars, whose past has led her to a commitment to justice no matter what the cost. As the visions intensify and the killer draws nearer, Derrick and Allison are compelled to act, making themselves the next targets. Derrick must learn to negotiate a world of spirits and demons, living and dead, before it’s too late. And what hangs in the balance is not just their lives, but also the fate of life on earth.

With Songs of the Dead, Derrick Jensen has written more than a thriller. This is a story lush with rage and tenderness on its way to being a weapon.

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

How Shall I Live My Life?: On Liberating the Earth from Civilization
by Derrick Jensen
ISBN: 978-1-60486-003-0
Published July 2008
Format: Paperback
Size: 9 by 6
Page count: 304 Pages
Subjects: Politics, Environment
$20.00

In this collection of interviews, Derrick Jensen discusses the destructive dominant culture with ten people who have devoted their lives to undermining it.

Whether it is Carolyn Raffensperger and her radical approach to public health, or Thomas Berry on perceiving the sacred; be it Kathleen Dean Moore reminding us that our bodies are made of mountains, rivers, and sunlight; or Vine Deloria asserting that our dreams tell us more about the world than science ever can, the activists and philosophers interviewed in How Shall I Live My Life? each bravely present a few of the endless forms that resistance can and must take.

Interviews include:

George Draffan
Jesse Wolf Hardin
Vine Deloria
David Abram
Steven Wise
Jan Lundberg
David Edwards
Thomas Berry
Carolyn Raffensperger
and Kathleen Dean Moore

The Buzz

"An appealing diversity of voices, each articulating a different vision of environmental activism...they promote diverse paths toward a deep connection to place and nature—a connection that could lay the basis for significant social transformation." —The Indypendent on How Shall I Live My Life?

"Derrick Jensen is a public intellectual who both breaks and mends the reader's heart."
—Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet For A Small Planet

"Derrick Jensen is a man driven to stare without flinching at the baleful design of our culture . . . His analysis of our culture's predilection for hatred and destruction will rattle your bones."
—Daniel Quinn, author of Ishmael

Buy this book now | Download e-Book now | Read book reviews

Now This War Has Two Sides
by Derrick Jensen
Released: March 2008
ISBN: 978-1-60486-007-8
UPC: 877746000720
Format: Audio CD
Time: 115 minutes
Package Size: 5.5 by 5.5
Subjects: Spoken Word, Politics
$19.99

“Where will you choose to make your stand? Give me a threshold, a specific point at which you'll finally stop running. At which you'll finally fight back. Stand with me. Stand and fight. I am one, and we would be two. Two more might join and we would be four. When four more join we will be eight. We will be eight people fighting whom others will join. And then more people. And more. Stand and fight.”
—From the CD

Examining the premises of his latest controversial work, Endgame as well as core elements of his ground breaking book Culture of Make Believe, this two hour lecture and discussion offers both a perfect introduction for newcomers and additional insight for those already familiar with Derrick Jensen's work.

Whether exposing the ravages of industrial civilization, relaying humorous anecdotes from his life, or bravely presenting a few of the endless forms that resistance can (and must) take, Jensen leaves his audience both engaged and enraged.

Buy this CD now | Read CD reviews

Events

For a calendar of speaking events, please click here

What Others Are Saying...

Articles about Derrick Jensen

Utne Reader: 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World
Press Action Dynamic Dozen 2008

Interviews

Reviews

How Shall I Live My Life?: Morning Star
Lives Less Valuable: WritersCast
How Shall I Live My Life?: The Indypendant
Now This War has Two Sides: Profane Existence
Now This War has Two Sides: AMP Magazine
Now This War has Two Sides: Sierra Club
Resistance Against Empire: Political Media Review
Truths Among Us: Earth First! Journal Magazine
Truths Among Us: Publishers Weekly
Truths Among Us: Political Media Review

UTNE Reader
50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World
November 2008

Caution: Apocalypse Ahead
Derrick Jensen, author, environmentalist

“We’re going to watch the end of the world on television until the TVs go out.” Who’s this cheery fellow? It’s Derrick Jensen, the green thinker and writer who’s out to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear. Call him an anarcho-primitivist, a bomb thrower, or a person without hope—a stance he celebrated in the classic essay “Beyond Hope”—but don’t call him weak-kneed. “I don’t feel particularly courageous,” he says. “If you asked any 7-year-olds how to stop global warming, they’d give you a pretty straightforward answer. I’m just writing what a lot of people are thinking, but don’t say aloud.”

Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Press Action Dynamic Dozen 2008
Press Action celebrates the most dynamic reporters, authors and commentators of 2008.
Derrick Jensen

Jensen leads the 2008 class of Press Action’s Dynamic Dozen based on his tireless efforts to inspire us—through his books, essays, speeches, correspondence, etc.—to save the planet. This honor may not rank as high as Utne Reader naming him one of the “50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” Utne Reader says Jensen is the “green thinker and writer who’s out to tell us not what we want to hear but what we need to hear.” Press Action agrees.

Buy book now | Download e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Reviews

Civil Conversations
By Harry Thorne
The Indypendent

Derrick Jensen’s 2006 epic Endgame was a rambling but provocative dissection of the environmental and political ills of civilization. Surveying the damage wrought by civilization, from dammed rivers to genocide, Jensen presented his solution: in order to save the planet, committed activists should work to bring down civilization in its entirety by “any means necessary.”

Review from Profane Existence #58:
Derrick Jensen – "Now This War Has Two Sides" (CDs)

These CDs are a two hour lecture from author/ activist/environmentalist Derrek Jensen. In this lecture series, he discusses the main premises for his recent book Endgame. The basis of the book, as well as the lecture, is to talk about the apocalyptic state of the world today, ie. the rise in pollution, extinction of wild native species, clear cutting, toxins, and to discuss how we need to make a change toward sustainable living. In his talk, he candidly discusses the several premises that make up his book, including topics such as: Industrial civilization as we know it is not sustainable- the way we live cannot continue endlessly. Traditional societies don't give up their natural resources unless they are exploited into doing so. This concept leads into the third premise of his book, that this sort of behavior and upkeep won't continue without persistent violence. And that violence usually flows downward. He discusses exploitation and power struggles, both within the context of taking possessions and freedoms from those with less power, as well as power struggles of gender and sexuality, and how violence is equated with all of those. And how this violence and consumerism is ultimately going to lead to our demise. Jensen is articulate, poignant, and laugh out loud funny. I'd go see him speak, and am now curious to read some of his books as well. The lecture is also a great synopsis of his book for those that aren't familiar with him and want to learn more, as I did.
(Maygun)

Buy CD now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Review from AMP Magazine
Derrick Jensen - "Now This War Has Two Sides" (CDs)

Pretty intense spoken work/lecture from this leading proponent of the "de-civilization" movement. On this double CD a wide range of environmental issues are discussed from a very personal and intimate standpoint. I think the beauty of Derrick Jensen is that he uses humor even when speaking on dire issues AND that he is not above poking fun at himself and other environmentalists. His use of humor not only shows him to be a genuine person but it also helps lend his "serious" passages that much more impact. He maintains that even though things are really fucked planet-wise that one can fight to change them AND STILL have a great time loving life in the process. Quite a bit of thought-provoking material on these discs. Recommended not only to those who consider themselves "environmentally active" but even more so to those who think such people are "quacks". For wherever you may fall in this spectrum Derrick Jensen will cause you to examine where you stand and hopefully inspire you into action.

Buy CD now | Back to reviews | Back to top

At War With the World: Derrick Jensen's Now This War Has Two Sides
By William Gresham
Missouri Sierra Club
August, 2008

Among those who have read the works of Derrick Jensen (including A Language Older Than Words, The Culture Of Make Believe, and, most recently [with artist Stephanie McMillan], the graphic novel As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay In Denial), many have had the opportunity to see and hear him in person. It is not overstating the case to call what Jensen does performance. Jensen’s newest release is a recording of the talk he’s been doing, more-or-less, since the publication of Endgame in 2006. This recording was made live in Vancouver, BC (the liner notes indicate “fills from various other shows”).

Resistance Against Empire on Political Media Review
By Simon Czerwinskyj
Political Media Review
July 21, 2010

Privacy advocate Katherine Abrecht asks “How does our society get us to replace acute, healthy outrage with a chronic, there’s-nothing-we-can-do-about-it, soul-killing ache?” Resistance Against Empire makes an attempt to enrage its readers into action through education, and will embolden sympathetic readers, while it probably will not change your average CEO’s mind (I wonder if Jensen has ever considering infiltrating CEO book clubs? Do CEOs read books? Or are they too busy eating babies?). However, there is a surfeit of viable solutions to alleviate the overwhelming amount of grim details, with each interview ending with a mere morsel of potential future progress. That said, Jensen has compiled an ambitious compendium of truly important issues, and the book is an eye-opening and educational read.

An Ode to the Movement: Truths Among Us Brings it Back Home
By Sasha
Earth First! Journal Magazine
February 2012

To fit this many observations in a single work while pulling so many voices into a bricolage of diverse and complimentary discourse is a momentous achievement by Jensen, and it is sorely needed today. Which brings me to the next interesting aspect of Truths Among Us: many of the interviews took place before 9/11 and the Green Scare, bringing together a number of voices in an interesting time capsule; a point when “the movement” had the ability to articulate particular demands with far more discursive freedom. One can see in the history of Jensen's writings a complicated tension between the right-wing anarchist-primitivist tradition and left wing socialist thought. Jensen's own writing, which culminated in the monumental, prophetic lamentations of, Endgame, has always played along a tight-wire of resistance, moving between prison advocacy to animal welfare sympathies to feminism and post-colonial theory, while maintaining what one might call an autonomous political position. While the anarchist right has chided him for endorsing a liberal mindset, much of the liberal left has disassociated itself from Jensen's antipathy for reforms.

Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture
Publishers Weekly

Jensen (A Language Older Than Words) shares scintillating interviews with 10 leading philosophers, social scientists, and writers including Stanley Aronowitz, Jane Caputi, George Gerber, Judith Herman, and John Keeble, who all address, among other themes, finding harmony with the environment and society, and learning to listen to the stores of knowledge and intuition within us. The late media analyst Gerber takes on television's potential to engender "withdrawal and insecurity" in viewers, to produce passive citizens for a corporate state. Feminist Caputi argues that "pornography is the core story underlying militarism, planetary destruction, as well as violence against women." The discussion of rape reaches its pained, powerful apex when she writes, "the whole of patriarchy is caught up in four letters: it's the paradigmatic verb of this culture." Although the book offers a compelling account of the thoughts of these scholars, on rare occasions the book takes a personal twist. For instance, before presenting his interview with Judith Herman, author of the seminal Trauma and Recovery, Jensen discloses that his own father battered his family, serving as the impetus for his "many questions" to Herman about trauma and the role of memory, lending this thought-provoking series of interviews an intimate dimension. (Jan.)

Buy book now | Buy e-Book now | Back to reviews | Back to top

Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture
by John Duerk
Political Media Review
October 21st, 2011

Truths Among Us: Conversations on Building a New Culture, is an important collection of in-depth interviews that prolific author Derrick Jensen conducted with a handful of radical thinkers you should become more familiar with if you’re not already. All of the “conversations” enlightened me and a number of them prompted me to reconsider what I know about some of the complex subjects that are discussed.

Derrick Jensen Interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!:

November 15, 2010