Charles Eisenstein: Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, & Society in the Age of Transition (2011)

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.

This book is about how the money system will have to change—and is already changing—to embody this transition. A broadly integrated synthesis of theory, policy, and practice, Sacred Economics explores avant-garde concepts of the New Economics, including negative-interest currencies, local currencies, resource-based economics, gift economies, and the restoration of the commons. Author Charles Eisenstein also considers the personal dimensions of this transition, speaking to those concerned with “right livelihood” and how to live according to their ideals in a world seemingly ruled by money. Tapping into a rich lineage of conventional and unconventional economic thought, Sacred Economics presents a vision that is original yet commonsense, radical yet gentle, and increasingly relevant as the crises of our civilization deepen.

Publisher North Atlantic Books, 2011
ISBN 1583943978, 9781583943977
469 pages
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Janet Byrne (ed.): The Occupy Handbook (2012)

“The Occupy Handbook pairs the most widely read and closely followed of the world’s economic, business, and cultural writers with the most popular protest movement in American history since the sea change of the 1960s: Occupy Wall Street.

Sixty-seven writers analyze the movement’s deep-seated origins in questions that the country has sought too long to ignore. The writers include Paul Krugman, Robin Wells, Michael Lewis, Paul Volcker, John Cassidy, Emmanuel Saez, Peter Diamond, Robert Reich, Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson, Amy Goodman, Jeff Madrick, Pankaj Mishra, Barbara Ehrenreich, Scott Turow, Carmen M. Reinhart, Kenneth S. Rogoff, Bethany McLean, Brandon Adams, Robert Shiller, Raghuram Rajan, Gillian Tett, Martin Wolf, Arjun Appadurai, Tyler Cowen, Felix Salmon, David Cay Johnston, Chris Hedges, David Graeber, and many others.

The Occupy Handbook captures the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon in all its ragged glory, giving readers an on-the-scene feel for the movement as it unfolds while exploring the heady growth of the protests, considering the lasting changes wrought, and recommending reform. A handbook to the occupation, The Occupy Handbook is a talked-about source for understanding why 1% of the people in America take almost a quarter of the nation’s income.”

Guest Editor Robin Wells
Publisher Back Bay Books / Little, Brown and Company, April 2012
ISBN 0316220213, 9780316220217
560 pages

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Tidal: Occupy Theory, Occupy Strategy, 2: Spring is Coming (2012)

“We have spent the winter learning, working and growing. And now we are being propelled to bolder, more intelligent forms of resistance.

Our vision and alternatives will come in time, with patience, working together, when we reflect the strength and diversity of the 99%. Until then, let’s grow our power with each other against a government that’s no longer responsive to the will of the people it claims to represent.

We hope this Tidal ignites new conversations and deepens older ones amongst each other, in our assemblies, working groups, caucuses, universities, town halls, union halls, bars, bus stops, subway cars, shelters, dinner tables, and workplaces, in every spaces we occupy. The stakes are high enough that the conversations should happen everywhere. And perhaps the coming year will be the moment when we are unleashed beyond a ‘movement’ and towards a new way of being.” (Editorial statement)

Edited by Natasha Rosa Luxemburg, Amin Husain, Babak Karimi, and Laura Gottesdiener
Publisher Occupy Media, March 2012
32 pages

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