Remaking Society A New Ecological Politics

Moving toward an ecological utopia.

According to Murray Bookchin, a humane solution to the climate crisis will require replacing industrial capitalism with an egalitarian, ecological society; decentralized democratic communities; and sustainable technologies. Drawing on rich traditions of ecological science, anthropology, history, utopian philosophy, and ethics, Remaking Society offers a coherent framework for social and ecological reconstruction. This innovative work on nature and society provides readers with clear strategies for averting disaster.

In their foreword to this new edition of Remaking Society, Marina Sitrin and Debbie Bookchin show that remaking is a continuing project: “If hierarchy has deeply wounded our relationships with each other and the natural world, capitalism has plunged a knife that much more deeply into the wound. Capitalism, [Bookchin] believes, has distorted every aspect of political, social, and even personal life.… Our challenge then is to build movements everywhere that will preserve and expand our innate creativity and eradicate any tendencies toward hierarchy, status, or other forms of domination.”

Praise for Remaking Society

“That we need to abolish capitalism and create a different society if humanity is to have a future, is now beyond question. There is no alternative. But how can we do it? This classic by Murray Bookchin is an invaluable source for thinking our way forward. Essential reading.”
—John Holloway is the author of the trilogy Change the World Without Taking Power, Crack Capitalism, and Hope in Hopeless Times 

Murray Bookchin (1921–2006) was an active voice in the ecology, anarchist, and communalist movements for more than fifty years. His groundbreaking essay, “Ecology and Revolutionary Thought” (1964), was one of the first to assert that capitalism’s grow-or-die ethos was on a dangerous collision course with the natural world that would include the devastation of the planet by global warming. Bookchin is the author of The Ecology of Freedom, among two dozen other books. He was born in New York, NY.

Marina Sitrin is the author of Horizontalism, coauthor of They Can’t Represent Us!, and coeditor of Pandemic Solidarity.

Debbie Bookchin is a journalist, editor, author, and daughter of Murray Bookchin.