Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World

Blessed Unrest contains so many powerful new perspectives that it's all but impossible to identify even the most important ones in a review. Telling about this book is complicated by the fact that what is a powerful new perspective depends in part on what you know already. The key point is that being concerned about the environment cannot be logically separated from being concerned about exploited people: The time has come to reflect and act on all of perspectives of where improvement is needed. Here is the briefest possible overview: Organizing to improve conditions for others is a relatively new phenomenon, dating back only to the anti-slavery movement. But despite that recent beginning, self-organized efforts are growing exponentially to improve conditions for the poor, indigenous people, and endangered people and species. These activities are likened to the massive, redundant, and intelligent responses involved in the human immune system. The concepts behind these efforts link back to Emerson and Thoreau, Darwin, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Sir James Lovelock, and most recently Jared Diamond. The current exponents of those concepts are people who are scientifically and emotionally concerned by lasting damage that's occurring . . . and are well educated, responsible citizen advocates. Contrast is drawn by describing the implications of the current momentum behind global free markets, reduced regulation of major companies, and the rapid extinction of common resources we all need. You'll find out about appalling examples of harm being created. Paul Hawken has an impressive way of selecting his examples and drawing his points out of them. My favorite story involves running a workshop at a chemical company where Mr. Hawken challenged the leaders and engineers to design a long-term spaceship that would allow humans to survive. No one among those doing the project included a single one of the company's products for the spaceship. Why? The products are too toxic for a small environment. A number of the people later left their jobs. What's the relevance of that story? Mr. Hawken uses the example to illustrate the concept of Earth as our spaceship for survival. Everyone will learn something about so-called facts that are often cited, whether it be the motives of the Luddites or the actions of protestors at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle. I was particularly impressed with the book's perspective on how the indigenous civilizations in the Americas were in many ways superior to the Western European one. There are many parallels in the book that would leave you laughing . . . if they weren't so sad. Perhaps the most powerful parallel is between the Spanish Conquistadors and the CEOs of global giant companies who want to increase profits at the expense of the poorest people. For those who want to learn more, you'll find lots of great resources in the appendix, footnotes, and bibliography. To me, one of

In a remarkably thorough (about half of this book comprises of an appendix that provides detailed definitions, citations and notes) and well-researched book (reads more like a collection of critical essays), Hawken weaves an excellent tapestry of issues surrounding development, social justice, and environment. Drawing heavily from history, Hawken manages to put key developments in context for providing an excellent argument on how the ongoing 'social movement without a name' has evolved. The gravity of the issues mentioned, the new and unique insights provided on events and personalities, and the detailed narration clearly gives this book a very serious tone (appropriately). Among the well-written chapters (essays), the one on civil disobedience stands out for the sheer unique insights provided on the thought evolution of greats like Gandhi and MLK. Without significant political posturing, Hawken discusses in a calm, methodical manner the issues that relate to social justice and development on multiple facets. An excellent , thought provoking read.

Blessed Unrest - "Re-imagining the Future" That Paul Hawken is a careful and caring student of the environmental and social justice movements is apparent in the flowing text of Blessed Unrest. What is more striking is the extent to which Hawken has embedded the redemptive soulful invitations to be agents for change that Emerson, Thoreau, Gandhi, and King offered each one of us. The result is an inspired manifesto: Everyman has a role to play in shaping a world built on a reverence for all life and honoring what is noble and true in others as well as in ourselves. As the stunning appendix makes clear, there are millions of us who are hard at work (and play) re-imagining that future right now. 170 years ago in a cemetery next door to her home in Salem, Massachusetts, a young Sophia Peabody (soon to be the fiancée of Nathaniel Hawthorne) read Emerson's just-published 1837 Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Address, "The American Scholar" (called "America's Intellectual Declaration of Independence" by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.). With much enthusiasm Sophia wrote to her brother in New Orleans that Emerson was "the Watchman that sits in the Tower of Thought, & whenever the Morning cometh to his far reaching eye, he announces it in a clear spirit tone to those who are sleeping beneath the mount of Vision." While the "sluggards" may have wished to keep sleeping, Emerson trumpeted, "No No! the MORNING COMETH!" Sophia next informed her brother of the effect of Emerson's company on their sister, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (the founder of the kindergarten movement in the US): "Elizabeth has replenished her horn at the fountain of his overflowing Dawn. You know her own is never empty. She has found out what she has herself, rather than received anything new, I suspect. Her faith in herself is freshened." Like an Emersonian Watchman, Paul Hawken acknowledges in simple terms what we are facing, noting that it is time to wake up. He then replenishes our horn by refreshing our faith in ourselves and in the countless sisters and brothers around the world who are putting shoulders to the wheel. I cannot wait for the movie.

If you're depressed these days, it is not without good reason. Fear-mongers, the corporate sector, and the political class have conspired to form an extremely dark and inhospitable future. The environment and the various causes of social justice around the globe are in tattered disrepair, to put it mildly. Paul Hawken's wonderful book is a genuine argument for optimism, founded on hard-data and diligent detective work. His global survey of "change-agents", individuals and groups working, often independently and unknown to one another, has discovered a massive 'organism' mimicking the body's very own immune system and fighting off the pathogens of greed, extraction, and opression. Collectively, these groups represent the largest political movement in the history of the planet, and until Blessed Unrest, its larger outlines and properties were virtually unknown. Read this book and buy five copies for your friends. You'll be joining the millions of others worldwide who have aligned themselves with the awesome, restorative forces of nature, and are doing their best to reverse the last two centuries of despoilation and pillage of the human, plant and animal communities all over the world. You can start right where you stand. This book makes you want to stand up and cheer.

President Bill Clinton called Paul Hawken's last book, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Little, Brown. September 1999) one of the five most important books in the world today. Blessed Unrest belongs in the same category. In his new book, Paul Hawken, noted environmentalist, businessman, writer, tech entrepreneur, and organizational/cultural theorist, makes a compelling case that the disparate movements for ecological restoration and social justice are merging into "the largest movement in the World." The book provides a fascinating overview of how this massive movement has no precedence and is different from previous social movements particularly with respect to ideology. This movement has no name, center or a leader. It is organic, self-organized, and made up of millions of people committed to making the world a better place. One of my favorite passages is early on in the book when asked if he is pessimistic or optimistic about the world, the author says, "if you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren't pessimistic, you don't have the current data. If you meet the people in this unnamed movement and aren't optimistic, you haven't got a heart." This to me aptly summarizes what the book is about. I found the book uplifting as it is about optimism and a story of what's going right on our planet. The book and the companion website project called WiserEarth (www.wiserearth.org)is a major undertaking and achievement. Thank you Mr. Hawken! [...]