Endgame (Derrick Jensen books)

Endgame

Endgame: Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization
Author Derrick Jensen
Country United States
Language English
Subject Environment, Civilization
Publisher Seven Stories Press
Publication date
2006
Media type 2 Vols. Paperback.
Pages 931 combined
ISBN 1-58322-730-X
ISBN 1-58322-724-5
OCLC 64745326
304.2 22
LC Class GF75 .J45 2006

Endgame is a two-volume work by Derrick Jensen, published in 2006, which argues that civilization is inherently unsustainable and addresses the resulting question of what to do about it. Volume 1, The Problem of Civilization, spells out the need to immediately and systematically destroy civilization. Volume 2, Resistance, is about the challenging physical task that dismantling civilization presents.

Style and structure

Jensen begins with a list of 20 premises, the most concise encapsulation of his ideas published to date (see them in their entirety below).[1]

However, the bulk of the work is not written in such a highly structured, academic style. As in his previous books, A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe, Jensen uses the first-person, interweaving personal experiences with cited facts to construct his arguments. His books are written like narratives, lacking a linear, hierarchical structure. They are not divided into distinct sections devoted to an individual argument. Instead his writing is conversational, leaving one line of thought incomplete to move on to another and returning to it later on. Jensen uses this creative non-fiction style to combine his artistic voice with logical argument.

The books are addressed not to "fence-sitters," but to people who "already know how horrible civilization is, and who want to do something about it."[2] The focus is on the urgency of action, not on convincing the audience of basic axioms like "natural processes are good." Nevertheless, Endgame includes many arguments for the validity of the book's premises.

The two volumes were not written as separate and distinct parts of a work, but were separated for practical reasons after the text was written. In Volume 1, Jensen argues for premises 1 through 17, and he argues for the remaining three premises and their variations in the first chapters of Volume 2.

Endgame: Volume 2: Resistance

Premises

Awards

Jensen was named "Person of the Year" by Press Action for publishing Endgame, which they called "the most important book of the decade."[4]

Notes

  1. V.1, pp.ix-xii
  2. V.1, p.345
  3. He defines a civilization as "a culture—that is, a complex of stories, institutions, and artifacts—that both leads to and emerges from the growth of cities (civilization, see civil: from civis, meaning citizen, from latin civitatis, meaning state or city), with cities being defined—so as to distinguish them from camps, villages, and so on—as people living more or less permanently in one place in densities high enough to require the routine importation of food and other necessities of life." (V.1, p.17)
  4. Press Action ::: Press Action Awards 2006 Archived June 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
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