Tools for Conviviality (Open Forum) [Hardcover]

Ivan Illich (Author)

Book Description

Series: Open Forum | Publication Date: September 27, 1973

A work of seminal importance, this book presents Ivan Illich's penetrating analysis of the industrial mode of production which characterises our contemporary world.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ivan illich is the author of Celebration of Awareness, Tools for Conviviality, The Right to Useful Unemployment, Energy and Equity, Limits to Medicine, Shadow Work, Gender, H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness, ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind, Disabling Professions, Deschooling Society and In the Mirror of the Past: Lectures and Addresses 1978-1990. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 110 pages
• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (September 27, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714509736
• ISBN-13: 978-0714509730
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,343,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is undoubtedly a life-changing book., July 18, 1998

By 

Tod Abrahamson ([e-mail] (Gainesville, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tools for Conviviality (World Perspectives, Vol. 47) (Hardcover)

I can't say enough about the importance of this book. In short, Illich makes the point that there is a way in which the so-called "Third World" countries can avoid industrialization, and move directly into the post-industrialist state that the developed world is headed. There is no doubt in my mind that we will look back on this man's work sometime in the near future and realize how amazingly right he is. It is really a shame that he does not have more of an influence than he does. Some of the points in this book are so right that they seem impossible to refute or even question. I really can't even put into words the influence that the book has had on me. It is something everyone should read, and it's short enough that it can be done in a matter of a few hours. Please feel free to e-mail me and tell me what you thought of it, or of other works by this genius as I am going to work on trying to popularize and spread his ideas.

13 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read!, July 20, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Tools for Conviviality (Open Forum) (Paperback)

"Leftists operate as industrial elitists and only serves big business with their social programs that insure the subordination of an underclass of consumers to keep the capital and mythical progressivism on motion"?? What are you smoking?!! Actually, many Marxists revere both Illich and Fromm. We currently live in a world marred by global finance-capital impoverishing and destroying the well-being of millions for the mega-profits of a few, and industrial realities play a key role in the problem... as well as the solution: its time for workers to harness for themselves what they create and have created for their own benefit locally and internationally. I really don't think a proper reading of "Tools for Conviviality" condradicts this.

8 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mind blowing., May 19, 1999

By 

"dbs11" (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tools for Conviviality (Paperback)

This only fortifies my opinion that our leftists operate as industrial elitists and only serves big business with their social programs that insure the subordination of an underclass of consumers to keep the capital and mythical progressivism on motion.