Summarizes pretty succinctly "how we got into this mess." There's a message for the progressive conscience that believes in, as the author puts it, "intrinsic" values. ( )

I was a bit disappointed to find i was just reading a collection of his articles/essays, most of which I had already read. It was good to read through them again though, Monbiot has some very important things to say.
Still, I'm a bit dissatisfied with this, I was hoping for something more. ( )

This is a collection of Monbiot's writing for the Guardian and it does exactly what the title suggests its purpose to be. Over a selection of over 50 (51 actually) articles, George Monbiot skewers the decisions which have lead us to the current political situation.

The author is wise enough not to give glib suggestions as to how we may get out of the mess: he sees his job to be the highlighting of the problem.

The articles are all over five years old now and the situation is even more clear than when the book was originally published. Still well worth a read. ( )

As a collection of essays, this was worth reading. Fairly wide-ranging subject matter, and consistent approach. I like Monbiot's way of viewing things (quite "big picture" but some focus on actionable details) as it dovetails well with my own.

For the environmental side, I preferred Feral as a call to action. Some of the essays that stood out to me were the one on the drugs war (as he made a point about the detrimental effect of legalisation on developing countries that I'd never encountered before), on criminalising youth (I was never affected by those laws and didn't really understand them), and on Obama's use of drones. The one tackling some of the origins of Malthusian thought was fascinating and made me quite furious.

There was only one I wasn't keen on - when he decided to write about abortion. I don't think he has the background knowledge, experience, or a unique viewpoint to put forward anything new. The essay wasn't terrible, and it was backed up with facts and figures, but I think it's hard to analyse this subject without talking about things like domestic violence, gendered power relations, and reproductive coercion. I believe it's better tackled by someone working within reproductive rights, with less talk of the "tragedy" of abortion. I just don't think that framing it that way is helpful to women, even though I'm in agreement that the less invasive surgeries happen the better (especially with antibiotic resistance on the rise).

That one essay aside, I enjoyed the collection. There was something of value in every essay and I think I'm likely to come back to it in the future. ( )

How Did We Get Into This Mess?: Politics, Equality, Nature is a collection of George Monbiot's essays with an introduction which offers a thematic lens through which to read them. He posits that there must be "countervailing voices" in order for there to be change and these essays serve as a partial example of his countervailing voice on the issues, primarily, of politics, equality and nature. These are, of course, overlapping and interlocking areas so many essays may be focused on one topic but must still take into account the others.

For those unfamiliar with Monbiot's activism and/or column in the Guardian this will be an excellent introduction to his writing and thinking. For those of us familiar with him, this presents a selection of essays which, taken as a whole, addresses the topics mentioned in the title. This is not a book written as a single argument so the reader is not presented with a laid-out plan but rather must use the introduction as a map with which to navigate through the essays and extract Monbiot's overarching points and suggestions. It is certainly more work for the reader but I think that is the point: to get the reader to formulate ideas from his essays rather than simply be given some hypothetical solution to the world's problems. In other words, my takeaway might be an idea about what I can do (locally, regionally, nationally or internationally) to also be a countervailing voice while another reader will have an entirely different action to take.

I would recommend this to any reader interested in these topics, particularly those who enjoy active reading. The essays are strong if simply read to learn his ideas but the power really comes from interacting and thinking about solutions actively.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )