Re-enchanting Humanity

by Murray Bookchin

Published 19 October 1995
This work represents Murray Bookchin's riposte to the antihumanism, mysticism and antirationalism which are influencing many people's attitudes to environmental problems. Bookchin offers a critique of, among others, social Darwinists, deep ecologists, new agers, technophobes, Foucault, Derrida and Baudrillard. This intellectual tour-de-force offers a positive alternative approach to politics based on a refreshing confidence and belief in human potential.

In this scholarly critique, Murray Bookchin sets out his ideas about the nature of community. Bookchin presents resounding arguments suggesting that the tension between rural and urban societies can be a vital source of human creativity, potentially enabling the power of the individual and restoring the positive values and quality of urban life. Tracing the history of the city from pre-history through the Ancient Greek "polis" to the medieval city state, Bookchin reclaims the idea of the city as a major creative force in our civilization. Advocating a new approach to politics, this work offers a case for a new municipal agenda revitalizing citizenship and city life.