Tools for Conviviality (Open Forum) [Paperback]

Ivan Illich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000 | Series: Open Forum

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 alternate Paperback edition.

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 alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 125 pages
• Publisher: Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714509744
• ISBN-13: 978-0714509747
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,545,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 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]

Format: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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars stunningly topical August 27, 2012

By Maria

Format:Paperback

I was blown away by the fact that 40 years after it was first written, this little book can make so much sense!

18 of 41 people found the following review helpful

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

By A Customer

Format: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.