Praised by The New York Times as "one of the most distinctive voices in magazine journalism, " the Utne Reader's mission has been to uncover the important and inspiring news that the major media overlooks. Now, with that same dedication, the editors of Utne have profiled more than sixty of the world's most original thinkers who are often right at the center of that news, focusing on their ideas, their inspiration, and their visions of the future.
These are not the usual "visionaries." Coming from monasteries and urban ghettos, working at architecture firms and restaurants, living in Berkeley and Bangladesh, being under 35 and over 80, the visionaries in this book share one crucial asset: hope for the future. Hope for finding broader meaning and greater joy in our lives. Hope for the restoration of the planet. Hope for a social and economic order that uses the welfare of the weakest, not the strongest, as its gauge of success.
Well-illustrated with photographs of the subjects who are grouped into six categories-spirit, design, environment, social action, health, and culture-Visionaries is an inspiring and invaluable resource that will have profound appeal for activists, concerned citizens and all those "cultural creatives" who make up Utne's 600,000 loyal readers.
Featuring:
Folk-rock musician, Ani DiFranco
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Thich Nhat Hahn
Pagan witch, Starhawk
Catholic priest, Thomas Berry
Eco-architect, William McDonough
Feminist scholar, bell hooks
Sustainable business guru, Paul Hawken
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Utne Reader will heavily promote in their magazine and website
National print advertising
National publicity
Author events in Minnesota
Co-op available
Table of Contents
Acknowledgmentsz
Foreword by Eric Utne
Introduction
The Spirit Moving Us
Introduction
Thomas Berry
Satish Kumar
Stephen & Ondrea Levine
Thich Nhat Hahn
Zalman Schachter-Shalomiv
Starhawk
The Sense of Community
Introduction
Ernesto Cortes Jr.
Roberta Brandes Gratz
Jane Jacobs
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
61 Sizzling Visions of Hope and Change,
By J.W.K (Nagano, Japan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life (Utne Reader Books) (Paperback)
This book presents profiles of the most original minds of our time. The Utne Reader editors have outdone themselves with the selection of this compilation. The biographical information is amazing, and the ideas that sprang from those experiences will sweep you away. The book literally cuts across the entire board: Included are scientists, mystics, activists, business leaders, talk show hosts, poets, dissidents, musicians, novelits, Buddhists, rabbis, economists, bankers, futurists, jazz singers, environmentalists, architects, community organizers, feminists, dissenters, book clubers, journalits, conservationists, philosphers, healers, dancers, and America's leading Idler. A small sample of some these amazing people: * THOMAS BERRY: Catholic priest, environmental philosopher, grandfather of the religious ecology movement. "We have a moral sense of suicide, homocide, and genocide, but no moral sense of biocide or geocide, the killing of the life systems themselves..." * NOAM CHOMSKY: After Marx, Lenin, Shakespeare, Aristotle, the Bible, Plato, and Freud comes Chomsky on the most quoted top ten list. As you can see, he is the only living person on the list, making him numero uno in the land of the living. Linguist, political analyst, and America's most prominent dissident. * THICH NHAT HANH: Described as a "living Buddha." "Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and everything we do and see. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it." * SATISH KUMAR: Magazine editor, global wander, and advocate of spiritual ecology. "There is a dance between what you know and what you don't know. The place of mystery is the essential ingredient." * ZALMAN SCHACHTER-SHALOMI: Radically genius, dancing spiritualist, LSD-imbibing rabbi scholar, and flagstaff leader of the "psycho-eco-spiritual revolution of our millennial age." * STARHAWK: Pagan, feminist, author, activist, protestor, rejuvenator of rituals in American life. "And by `sacred' what I mean is not a great something that you bow down to, but what determines your values, what you would take and stand for." * FRANCES MOORE LAPPE: Author of "Diet for A Small Planet," chronicler of community activism across the country, promoter of public life. "I made a vow to myself that I would never do anything else again in my life until I understood how it related to the underlying causes of human suffering." * HELENA NORBERG-HODGE: Advocate of alternative development, defender of global diversity and local culture, founder of the Ladakh Project, a group dedicated to helping Ladakhis understand that they can choose which of the Western ways they want to adopt and which of the traditional ways they want to keep. "The destructive global economy exists only as long as we are prepared to accept it and subsidize it. We can reject it." * JOHN PAPWORTH: Human-scale advocate, former assistant to the president of Zambia, "shoplifting vicar," and protestor of "car madness." "There is surely reason to suppose that local people running their own neighborhood are far more likely to do what is decent than government ministers trapped in the entrails of power mongering on a mass scale." * JIM HIGHTOWER: Self-described populist, radio personality, former Texas commissioner of agriculture. "It won't be long before your church alter is adorned with a flashing neon sign hustling St. Joseph's aspirin." * WINONA LaDUKE: Anishinaabe nationalist, Green Party vice presidential candidate, founder of the White Earth Recovery Project. "We all need to choose some ground and stick to it." * GEOFF MULGAN: Policy adviser to British prime-minister Tony Blair, founder of the Demos think tank, and chronicler of connectedness. "The most pressing social problems no longer stem from an absence of freedom, but rather from too much freedom that leads to antisocial and self-destructive behavior..." * MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Founder of the Grameen Bank and "micro-credit," champion of women, and economist. "I avoid grandiose plans." * FRITJOF CAPRA: Ecological philosopher, physicist, and ecoliteracy advocate. "The environment is no longer one of many `single issues': it is the context of everything else-our lives, our business, our politics." * THEO COLBORN: Scientist, formulator of important theory about chemicals disrupting our endocrine systems. "Every one of you is carrying at least five hundred measurable chemicals in your body that were never in anybody's body before the 1920s." * EDWARD GOLDSMITH: Green firebrand, founder of "The Ecologist" magazine, crusader against the global economy. "Nearly everyone today seems to accept the preposterous view that modern man is actually `improving' the world..." * PAUL HAWKEN: Entrepreneur, green businessman, and prophet of a sustainable economy. Advocates nothing short of replacing our "throw-away" culture with a "closed-loop system". * HAZEL HENDERSON: Futurist, sustainable-development advocate, self-taught economist. "If I had been inducted into Economics 101, I would have suffered brain damage." * WILLIAM McDONOUGH: Architect, industrial designer, and pioneer of the next industrial revolution. "The model for the next industrial revolution may have well been right in front of us the whole time: a tree."
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Visionaries, radicals, or both?,
By Mike Daly (Winnipeg, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life (Utne Reader Books) (Paperback)
Here is a book for everyone who thinks that ideas are the greatest source of power on the planet. Within this highly-readable volume, you'll find ideas from more than sixty original thinkers - people who, depending on your point of view, can be described as mavericks, geniuses, philosophers, mystics, agitators, insurgents, visionaries, leaders, or members of the lunatic fringe. The profiles are billed as presenting "People and Ideas to Change Your Life." That may be a tall order to fill, but the range of ideas presented will, at the very least, make you re-think your view of the world and the people in it. It is a book of possibilities and alternative viewpoints, of helpful suggestions and dire warnings - little or none of which you'll find championed in the mainstream media. These are the voices the establishment wants to relegate to the hinterlands of public debate. They are important voices, regardless of whether you find yourself nodding in agreement or shaking your head in bemusement.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspiring bios of famous and unknown activists and reformers,
By
This review is from: Visionaries: People and Ideas to Change Your Life (Utne Reader Books) (Paperback)
I came across this book not long ago while looking for something completely different. After reading a few of the small bios in it about activists such as Bill Moyers, Noam Chomsky, and bell hooks to name a few, I bought it.The best thing about the book is not the bios of the famous. It is the moving and inspiring stories of the unknowns. The activists who have worked tirelessly for years and decades to fix some injustice that they will receive very little praise for. It made me realize (I guess I had known, but needed verification) that one person can make a REAL difference and after reading this book, I won't stand idle while a problem openly exists.
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