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Title details for Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken - Available

Blessed Unrest

How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming

by Paul Hawken
Richard Powers
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

The New York Times bestselling examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change Paul Hawken has spent more than a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location but that is in every city, town, and culture. Though this movement has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media, it is organizing from the bottom up and is emerging as an extraordinary and creative expression of people's unstoppable need to re-imagine their relationship to the environment and to one another. Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and centuries of hidden history. A culmination of Hawken's many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire all who despair of the world's fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 1, 2006

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781481565707
      • File size: 250594 KB
      • Duration: 08:42:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • Text Difficulty: 8-12

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      If you have the least bit of concern for the environment, and if for some reason you listen to only one audiobook this year, let it be BLESSED UNREST. In brief, the book describes how the social justice movement and the environmental movement are, as they should be, intertwining and says that this trend is the best, and maybe the only, hope we have for saving our beautiful, fragile planet. Nonfiction is a challenge for a performer under the best of circumstances, but Paul Garcia captures the passion and purposefulness of Hawken's writing. Garcia narrates factual information evenly and knows when to dramatize the statements that form the heart of this treatise. M.S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 30, 2007
      Hawken (Natural Capitalism) traces the formation of the environmental and social justice movement from the beginnings of natural science across years and continents in this rousing and "inadvertently optimistic" call to action. Though it's argued that globalization; extinction of species, languages and cultures; and economic policies advantageous to the rich have degraded quality of life worldwide and engendered large scale feelings of fear, resentment and powerlessness, Hawken remains surprisingly hopeful. Strength, he contends, lies in the many thousands (if not millions) of nonprofits and community organizations dedicated to environmental protection and social justice that collectively form a worldwide movement geared toward humanity's betterment. A combination of history, current events, motivation and vision for the future, Hawken's book does a lot of work in its relatively few pages, though his perspective comes across in some passages as naïve (the thousands of protestors at the 1999 Seattle World Trade Organization meeting merely wanted to "hold WTO accountable"). The book isn't likely to convert members of the World Bank, but readers already sympathetic to Hawken's position will find much here to chew on.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 24, 2007
      Hawken weaves together the intricate threads of what he believes is a global humanitarian movement encompassing the numerous environmental, social justice and indigenous preservation nongovernmental organizations throughout the world. Historical vignettes on major influences such as Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson and Mahatma Gandhi are included in this cumulative assessment of the movement. Hawken's words and conclusions are promising and hopeful that this amalgamated assortment of groups can produce the change needed to keep humanity prospering. While thorough in his explanation, his points and analogies sometimes fall flat for listeners not fully versed in some of the topics discussed. Garcia's narration initially works well. His emphasis and rhythm make even the most pedantic moments (such as long lists of companies and people) easy to follow. However, dozens of times throughout the book, his voice audibly shifts, particularly when pronouncing non-English words. The abruptness of these inserts is a bit shocking. Additionally, Blackstone Audio fails to make certain notes within the audiobook available (or at least easily accessible) on its Web site as the package indicates. Simultaneous release with the Viking hardcover (reviewed online).

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • Text Difficulty:8-12

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