Praise for The Great Turning
The Great Turning sets forth a compelling, devastating, and ultimately profoundly hopeful story that provides a framework for the new, unifying political conversation our nation so desperately needs. A must-read for every person of conscience.
Van Jones, Executive Director, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
What a gift David Korten has given us with this prophetic book! In this well-written and thorough story of the crises of late Modernity, Korten gives us a beautifully reasoned, carefully researched look at why we absolutely have to turn away from imperial power and wealth and, instead, create an Earth Community. This is a must-read for activists, for lovers of contemporary American studies, and for Cultural Creatives.
Paul H. Ray, coauthor of The Cultural Creatives
Employing history, psychology, economics, spirituality, and common sense, Korten not only critiques the dilemma we are in as a species, he also shows us doable and workable ways out of our morass. He has created a tour de forcea call to compassion as much as a blueprint for survival. This book is a kind of Bible to the 21st century, a revelation of where we might travel if we have the moral imagination and the courage to choose and act wisely.
Matthew Fox, educator and theologian, author of Original Blessing and A New Reformation
If you read only one book on how to address the looming ecological and social crises facing humanity, make it this one! Korten fearlessly grapples with the big picture and goes beyond merely diagnosing the problem (which he does with great precision), as he outlines a positive and realistic plan for actually creating a just and sustainable global society.
David Cobb, 2004 Green Party United States Presidential Candidate
Korten has done it againcreated a masterpiece of big thinking to help us find our way in this death-or-life historical moment. With fascinating analogies, intriguing stories, and eloquent analysis, Korten engages and emboldens us to believe that we can trust and cultivate the best in ourselves and, despite the lateness of the hour, choose life.
Frances Moore Lapp, author of Hopes Edge and Democracys Edge
In a moment when the political discourse is obsessed with immediacy, Korten calls us to pause and reflect upon what it means to be fully human. As one reads this rigorous book, one is moved by its sacredness. The spiritual reflection with deep political and economic implications demands we move with grace and dignity into the new space of equity, dignity, and, above all, abiding love. In the end, may we all be turned.
Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, author of Urbansouls
This is the book that needed to be written. Weaving together culture patterns, politics, economics, and history, Korten demonstrates how U.S. history is NOT the democratic model that all politicians and pundits recall. It is, in actuality, a legacy of imperial power and control. The time has come for a change we need to move on and empower a different kind of story!
Georgia Kelly, Founder and Director, Praxis Peace Institute
A must-read for everyone who yearns to create a positive human future. In When Corporations Rule the World Korten called attention to the corruption of corporate-led economic globalization and helped to launch a powerful global resistance movement. In The Great Turning he tells us that the scourge of economic globalization is but a contemporary manifestation of 5,000 years of rule by imperial elites. It is a wise, profound, and practical book filled with fresh insights and is destined to be even more influential than Kortens previous contributions.
Anita Roddick, Founder, The Body Shop
The Great Turning is smooth, brilliantly researched, and gripping. Korten has constructed a story of hope and insight. Alert the Democrats! Here is a blueprint for a vision they are born to promote to the world. The ending inspires poetically. Things arent hopeless, the world is truly turning and all we need do is push ourselves along together.
Dal LaMagna, Founder and former CEO, Tweezerman
The Great Turning is a profound and inspiring masterpiece that illuminates the cultural, social, and political significance of the contrasting worldviews of the classic materialistic-mechanistic Newtonian physics and modern holistic-quantum physics. Korten eloquently points to the necessity of abandoning the dominating power-oriented plutocracy of Empire in favor of a life-enhancing, continuously diversifying, cooperatively integrated Earth.
Professor Hans-Peter Duerr, PhD, former Director, Max-Planck-Institute for Physics, Munich; Winner, Alternative Nobel Prize, 1987
With the majesty of a George Lucas movie, Kortens epic tale, which pits Earth Community against Empire, weaves together the great social movements of our time. It inspires us at this crucial point in history to fulfill our destiny as thinking, acting, and loving human beings.
Judy Wicks, Proprietress, White Dog Cafe and Co-Chair, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE)
THIS is the book we have been waiting for! It provides the context and stories that have been missing, leaving us with piecemeal analyses and solutions. The framework of the 5,000-year history of the Empire is a powerful eye-opener about the deliberateness of enslavement and oppression.
Jan Roberts, Director, Earth Charter USA Communities Initiatives
This is a hugely important book, and hugely impressive! I imagine it reaching far beyond Kortens existing readership.
Raffi Cavoukian, singer, author, ecology advocate, and Founder, Child Honoring
David Korten is a militant for Life, Earth, and Community. This groundbreaking book provides the holistic overview of a 21st century revolution and evolution that can inspire the ordinary citizen to act and transform the activist into a long-distance runner.
Grace Lee Boggs, coauthor of Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century
Throw away the technological fixes of Thomas Friedman and Jeffrey Sachs and enter Kortens world where communities organize to secure their rights and build a better world. I know of no writer who better embraces the wisdom of such a broad spectrum of thinkers to create new understanding, new possibilities, new inspiration, new hope.
John Cavanagh, Director, Institute for Policy Studies; Board Chair, International Forum on Globalization
This is indeed a spectacular book. The Great Turning supports our most open-hearted evolutionary process.
Bill Kauth, Co-Founder, The ManKind Project, and author of A Circle of Men
Brilliant. Challenging. Inspiring. Practical. Spiritual. Intelligent. Once again David Korten challenges us with his keen analysis and elegant wisdoma clear call for sustainable social transformation and a timely invitation to live a different story. Korten gives us exactly what we need in order to address our current paralysis and fear. Read this book and be inspired to make a difference.
The Very Reverend Bill Phipps, former Moderator, United Church of Canada
Inspired by a compelling spiritual and ethical vision, The Great Turning argues persuasively that the 21st century presents humanity with a unique opportunity to break with its violent past and to create a just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful future. In this major work, David Korten skillfully combines ecological, economic, social, psychological, and cultural analysis in order to issue a powerful summons to local communities and the emerging global civil society to lead the way.
Steven C. Rockefeller, Co-Chair, Earth Charter International Steering
David Korten has done it again!! Through careful and painstaking historical analysis, personal reflection, and myth-busting,