The compelling biography of revolutionary social ecologist Murray Bookchin.

Murray Bookchin was not only one of the most significant and influential environmental philosophers of the twentieth-century - he was also one of the most prescient. From deforestation to nuclear radiation, Bookchin has been at the forefront of every major ecological issue since the very beginning, often proposing a solution before most people even recognized there was a problem.

Ecology or Catastrophe: The Life of Murray Bookchin is the first biography of this groundbreaking environmental and political thinker. Author Janet Biehl worked as Bookchin's collaborator and copyeditor for 19 years, editing his every word. Thanks to her extensive personal history with Bookchin as well as her access to his papers and archival research, Ecology or Catastrophe offers unique insight into Bookchin's personal and professional life. Founder of the social ecology movement, Bookchin first started raising environmental issues in 1952. He foresaw global warming in the 1960s and argued that we should look into renewable energy sources as an alternative to fossil fuels. Wary of pesticides and industrial agriculture, Bookchin was also an early advocate of small-scale organic farming, which has developed into the present locavore movement and the revival of organic markets. Even Occupy can trace the origins of its leaderless structure and general assemblies to the antihierarchical organizational form Bookchin developed as a libertarian socialist.

Bookchin believed that social and ecological issues were deeply intertwined. Convinced that capitalism pushed businesses to maximize profits and ignore humanist concerns, Bookchin argued that eco-crises could be resolved by a new social arrangement. His solution was Communalism, a new form of libertarian socialism he developed. An optimist and utopian, Bookchin believed we could use reason to solve all social and ecological problems.

Both the biography of great thinker and a continuation of Bookchin's ecological and social call to arms, Ecology or Catastrophe is an indispensable text for environmentalists, political activists, and anyone looking for answers to today's ecological concerns.