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Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World Paperback – April 1, 2008
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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 dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media.
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.
- Print length352 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Publishing Group
- Publication dateApril 1, 2008
- Dimensions8.43 x 5.51 x 0.74 inches
- ISBN-100143113658
- ISBN-13978-0143113652
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Customers find the book thought-provoking and inspiring. They appreciate the perspective and information it provides, finding it useful for reference. However, opinions differ on the readability - some find it nice and well-written, while others consider it difficult to read.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book thought-provoking and inspiring. They say it expands their worldview and provides a useful reference. The concepts are still relevant, with a unique perspective into another's life.
"...Instead, it is about the hidden POWER of HUMANITY, and how our CHOICES impact the quality of LIFE of EVERYONE near and far, known and unknown!..." Read more
"...Some are sophisticated and some not. The book is incredibly thorough. If you read it you will be glad you did." Read more
"...Appendix, Notes, Bibliography, and Index are also great. Nice work Paul Hawken." Read more
"...Otherwise, the concepts are still as applicable as ever." Read more
Customers have different views on the book's readability. Some find it well-written and poetic, while others find it difficult to understand.
"This book is such a Revelation! The way Paul Hawken writes is almost poetic...." Read more
"This book is good for reference but not so much for reading...." Read more
"...went into this book is nothing short of amazing and yet it is so enjoyable to read." Read more
"Well written - great message - much needed at this time !" Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2015Honestly, this work should be a MUST READ for all human beings, no matter race, color or creed! Why? Because it simply presents interconnectedness and sustainability in true perspective! Okakura Kakuzō once stated, “The concept of totality must not be lost in the individual.” Blessed Unrest exemplifies the very essence of Okakura’s wisdom and love for collective human health, fellowship and continuity.
I’ve gone as far as purchasing additional copies, and sharing them with friends and strangers who seem to be at the threshold of realizing that there is something wrong with our current collective thinking. WE MUST join the ranks of not philosophers, but DOERS if we are to course-correct our present and thus our future. Blessed Unrest is not about politics or finances. Instead, it is about the hidden POWER of HUMANITY, and how our CHOICES impact the quality of LIFE of EVERYONE near and far, known and unknown!
I am a professor at a local college, and I am trying to convince the faculty, to allow me to build a Humanities’ curriculum, based on this book. I firmly believe that it should be a fundamental teaching in all disciplines spanning from the arts, to technology, and especially business. Why especially business? It is my unwavering belief that no business leader, should ever sit in the chair of “power,” without thoroughly examining the contents of Blessed Unrest.
I highly recommend this book. Please give it a chance, it just may change your life, the lives of those you love, and the lives of those you may never come to know.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2022This book details the remarkable range, diversity and public involvement in organizations dedicated to environmental and animal issues around the world. Mr Hawken put on his optimist’s hat and argues persuasively that something like one person in five globally are working for peace, climate, habitat, ecology, creature protection, justice, income equality, education, women’s issues, voting rights and so on. Some of the participants are wealthy and some lead subsistence lives. Some are sophisticated and some not. The book is incredibly thorough. If you read it you will be glad you did.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2021Paul Hawken's 2007 book is more relevant than ever, even fourteen years later. His last chapter, "Restoration" from its bio-evolutionary perspective, is evidence of divine intelligence still at disruptive/constructive work, seeing humanity as one responsive organism rallying to sustain life. Appendix, Notes, Bibliography, and Index are also great. Nice work Paul Hawken.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2022It's a good book. The directory in the latter section is soon to become dated. Otherwise, the concepts are still as applicable as ever.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2013Hawkin
Our immune systems, and only our immune system, prevent us from becoming everyone else all at once. We are who we are only because we defend ourselves every moment of every day. And who we are is everything. We are pieces of others. Portraits painted somewhere between our brains and thymuses. We are the dirt we've eaten and the songs we've sung. We are the light of the stars and darkness old beyond imagining. We are at once spontaneous fire and sacred water. We are faith and forgiveness. We are our own deaths and we are the eternal thoughts of others.
Gerald Callahan
I love this quote. It speaks strongly of both individuality and connectedness. In his book Blessed Unrest, Hawken describes a correlation between the immune system and the current state of affairs on an economic, social and ecological level. I think, however, that Hawken neglects an important point in his analogy.
The range of what we think and do
Is limited by what we fail to notice,
And because we fail to notice
That we fail to notice
There is little we can to
To change
Until we notice
How failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.
R. D. Laing
Namely, that he has failed to notice that the achievement of individuality was a hard won human accomplishment. As a species, we needed to separate from the whole and develop our own individualities in order to "serve" the whole with our gifts. Hawken mentions that the very word, `immunity' is derived from the Latin meaning ready to serve. Until recently humans were not separated enough to be able to serve. We were group and tribe identified. It has been a painful and hard earned process originating in the Axial Age he describes later. Now that we are able to identify self from other, similar to the function of the immune system, when we offer our contribution back in freedom, we will indeed be contribution to the whole; which is the point. We, as individuals will be able to contribute to change.
The immune system function, not only distinguishes self from other, but in the very act of separation creates connection and relationship. This is the very gesture that will heal the unrest that currently is plaguing our planet. Accompanying the decision making ability of the immune system, there are also the features of separation and redirection, inflation and depletion, and memory.
In separation and redirection, the immune system mediates between the in-coming `foreign' substance we consume; everything from our food to our daily diet of media. This gesture also holds true on the macroscopic level; whether that is a new person being incorporated into our organization or a new genetically modified organism being introduced into the ecosystem. The immune system stands at the crossroads of this transformative process. One of the things that can help to harmonize and regulate this process is a common agreement on the outcome or goal. In a true picture of the immune system, there is co-existence between the two extremes of the parts and the whole.
Like the immune system, we can become overwhelmed by the shear amount of information we consume. We can become bloated and irritated and as a result overwhelmed. Similar to mononucleosis, we become tired and depleted. We can find ourselves crawling from healing crisis to healing crisis. Instead of reinventing the wheel for each, an important, health giving solution is to call upon the experience and memory of similar predicaments. The immune system holds the immunologic history of disease in its T-cells, and in the same way we as individuals and unities need to hold institutional memory to guide our current and future encounters.
Finser, T. Organizational Integrity. Great Barrington, MA. SteinerBooks
Hawkin, P. (2008). Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is
Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World. Penguin.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2011This book is good for reference but not so much for reading. I agree with other low reviewers that it is jumbled together in an order that doesn't always fit. He talks about how there are stereotypes of environmentalists, but then he calls vegans "skinny" Also, he credits the Gates foundation of helping feed 3rd world countries, but in reality TGF is working with Monsanto. That is hardly "helpful" to the starving people of the world to receive GMO seeds that require Round-Up and other pesticides. In the back it calls fishing "recreational" but isn't it counterproductive to "save the earth" while killing the fish?
- Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2014This book is such a Revelation! The way Paul Hawken writes is almost poetic. I actually bought the kindle version, realized that I since I bought the kindle version I could download the Audible version for only a few dollars more and listen to it on my daily commute, then pick up where I left off once I got home! I also like listening to it and then going back and highlighting what I liked in the kindle!
I will recommend this to anyone who is interested in a healthy planet, "the movement", action plans, ideas, or even just the history of sustainability...
Top reviews from other countries
ireneReviewed in Canada on April 19, 20135.0 out of 5 stars Blessed Unrest
An Excellent and I would say essential read for any one interested in improving the quality of life on this planet.
-
Theo T.Reviewed in Germany on October 31, 20135.0 out of 5 stars Ein hoffnungsvolles Buch
Endlich mal ein Buch, das zeigt, was im Weltmassstab gesehen an zukunftsträchtigen Aktivitäten alles am Werk ist. Unverzichtbar, wenn man die geistigen Wurzeln der NGOs kennen will.
GE MitchellReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 2, 20145.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Brilliant
CCReviewed in Canada on January 18, 20135.0 out of 5 stars MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF OUR TIME
I have been giving the book as gifts since I first read it. It should be required reading for everybody.



