Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic as a follow-up to the Ishmael trilogy
Review: In practical terms, this is an excellent guide to anyone who's read Ishmael, The Story of B, and My Ishmael. I reviewed and recommended it on my website, SustainableWays.com, because Beyond Civilization provides a new way to look at sustainability. Unlike most other books concerning the environment, Mr. Quinn doesn't call for self-sacrifice of any sort. To the contrary, he reminds us that living sustainably is in our own best interest.I originally read Ishmael when I was in college, and upon reflection, it just blew my mind. I realized that humans CAN live sustainably, because they once did, and also that we can find a way to live sustainably without giving up comfort and happiness. This and other concepts are discussed and illustrated in The Story of B and My Ishmael, but sometimes are misunderstood. Beyond Civilization serves to clear up the misunderstandings. I've done in-depth reviews on this book and others like it for SustainableWays.com because of their fresh take on sustainability. Most people think that living sustainably is about living in a cave and catching dinner at the end of a spear. Beyond Civilization is one of those books that shows how it can be otherwise.
Rating:
Summary: New Direction
Review: Since the publication of Ishmael, Daniel Quinn has been building on a philosophy that offers hope in this apparently hopeless world. While we all try to recycle, reduce, and reuse, our world is still hurtling towards destruction, rapidly. Here is the first practical "how-to" manual for saving the world, your own world, the world you see every day. This is not some global strategy that requires governments to co-operate with each other. Rather than informing us of what the governments SHOULD be doing, or how the oil companies SHOULD be drilling, Daniel Quinn shows YOU how YOU can personally become involved in continuing the life of YOUR species within the community of life (and in the process increase your own wellness). The message here is not for us to continue waiting for others to do something. Beyond Civilization is your guide of how you can begin to do something in your very own life. The ideas are presented in a clear manner that leaves one wondering why no one has thought of this before. That's the best part of this book; most of the ideas presented are NEW. This is something different, something beyond recycling, something beyond restrictions on world-consuming corporations, something beyond the mad juggernaut of destruction our culture has become...BEYOND CIVILIZATION. Something else.
Rating:
Summary: REread.
Review: This book consists largely of brief reiterations of the ideas Quinn has presented in his first books. It is also designed as a "practical handbook", unlike his previous philosophical journeys. Beyond Civilization thus doesn't inspire the sense of profound and shocking revelation that Ishmael and the other books do in many of their readers. This in itself is a big disappointment to many. Quinn writes in the first pages that the most common response he got to his first books was a feeling of, "I understand the problem we are facing now and its urgency, but I have NO idea what I can do." He wrote Beyond Civilization in response, as an attempt to take readers from an abstract thought level to a realistic approach. The book works very well as that response but doesn't stand on its own. Quinn also, more than any author I've read, simplifies his ideas to no end and constantly uses the most basic analogies to communicate them. The apparent intent and result is to make the concepts widely and easily available to understand - to make them "obvious." Quinn is peerless in achieving this, and it it is the defining characteristic of his writing. In B.C., a common side-effect is frustration, when minds made hungry by the earlier books and expecting more of the same are instead offered further simplified reiterations. People new to Quinn's ideas see only the simplest premises with no explanation at all, leading to label the ideas and the book as tripe. Upon rereading Ishmael I noticed that the unique ecological ideas in it about agriculture had taken precedence in my memory, and that the book was actually about human cultural philosophies, or "the story we are enacting." Quinn's ideas for practical solutions in Beyond Civilization are therefor not about ecology but about how to enact a different story within civilization. The proposed actions are definitely unlike widely accepted "environmental" solutions. Anyone expecting ideas that are similar to or advancements of already existing approaches could be disappointed. In reality the tribal business idea is quite revolutionary in it's effect on how people would live and think; certainly much more so than recycling is. The most common thing that is done with Quinn's ideas is restating them inaccurately (and in the case of objections, then going on explain why he is wrong.) In almost all cases this is because some point Quinn made is forgotten and left out, which is probably a result of his writing style, since it is so common. I think it is necessary to reread the books and read the others to get all the ideas down before proposing a flaw in thinking or declaring some lack in realization. It might be something as simple as when Quinn states that third world population explosions can only be created by first world increases in food production. He repeatedly says that he doesn't propose reverting to hunter-gathering and primitive technology, which he says is impossible at thie point, but that the only way to save anything is to surpass the invention of civilization, to invent a better and more advanced social organization (not more complicated; further evolved). The Q and A section on his website is really useful for clarifying as well. As usual Quinn tries to anticipate the readers' questions and respond, clarifying differences between communes and tribal businesses and defining partial agriculture. The other feature of most Quinn readers, that's noticed in supporters and dissenters alike, is their reluctance to be creative in applying his ideas. Maybe this is because almost no ecological thinkers demand this in their proposed solutions. Quinn has few examples of tribal businesses because few people in the world have consciously and actually ventured Beyond Civilization at this point. Quinn is also very careful never to suggest any "Programs" - doing would make him very popular, but would also mean failure in what he is working to achieve. Instead he only gives principles which can be applied in an endless possible number of ways.
Rating: 
Summary: Good like ishmael, but slightly disappointing
Review: I am one of the readers who fell completely in love with Ishmael... not because it was something brand new to me, but because it was something i had always felt was the truth but had never bothered to pursue, because i had always thought i was alone in my assumptions. I have since read four other books by Quinn, including Beyond Civilization, and each time i find myself nodding my head and smiling from ear to ear, as i listen to someone tell me what i've always wanted to hear, and more. I bought Beyond Civilization because i was deep into this philosophy and i now wanted solid, practical, livable answers. This is where i was disappointed, for although i still learned a lot from this book, i did not find what i came to find. It still said to me "maybe... probably... hopefully"... but it didn't give me the kind of pure trust in the cause that i was desperately looking for. The examples were good, but they just didn't seem solid enough. I like the tribal business strategies, and the thoughts on the homeless, which i completely agree with. My problem came from the fact that his solutions, in the end, really didn't add up to the workable "walking away" strategy that i'd hoped for. (And he did address this exact issue in the book, but not thoroughly enough.) His tribal business solutions offer hope for a "meaningful" lifestyle, but they don't offer a solution to the stronghold of the current western worldview over business practise--he still seems to be working within that framework, and relying on the "civilized" way of life (that is the materialistic, wasteful, environmentally ravaging, ratrace that we're a part of.) He does mention alternatives, but doesn't seem to develop them too concretely... but then again, maybe that's my job... i can't expect him to do ALL the work!
Rating:
Summary: beyond civilization
Review: Beyond Civilization
Alexandria Kebede Daniel Quinn is a good writer. He's book was reader friendly so I enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed his teaching. The book was about civilization. He talked about the life we live and the life humans used to live in. There's a big deference between the city life and the life lived by bushmen in Africa.
Although a lot of people might not want to accept it. Daniel stresses that we were all bushmen at one point and we have to accept it, whether we like it or not. Although I don't have a problem with It others might. (Just the same as some people have problems with evolution).
Daniel named the book beyond civilization, because he wants humans to erase civilization. When a lot of people hear that argument they think the person saying it is implying we should live in caves and feed via spears.
Actually Daniel is implying that people should open their minds. Meaning that people should think on their own and think of way to live without civilization. Of course that is unfathomable because we live in only cities. What is naked to the human eyes is that memes are engraved into our heads at birth. A meme is a theme, kind of like a motivational phrase that keeps you in line. For example, "up your game" meaning practice and do better in your game. If you are told this at an early age, and it is used in ever aspect of your life "upping your game" would be an instinct in everything you do. You would be precisely a perfect person always to the best of your abilities.
To keep a civilization in line, people have to stay in line. To keep people in line you need a meme like, "civilization is essential for life". If this is drummed into the heads of people, of course we would think there is no escaping civilization.
If we began to accept civilization as one way of living; and not the only way of living we can make living better. Or as so the book explains. People who object to this are people afraid, and completly brain washed by societies memes.
Like Marx explains, a man is not truly free minded until civilization is destroyed. Daniel explains that a man is not truly free minded until memes are destroyed. Some might say, "why live without society it brings us the luxuries we have". But in reading the book you might think twice about your luxuries and for the first time glance at the hungry man next to you. Is a civilization worth the thirst of thousands of children. I would think not. Of course you can juggle both, right? Time after time we tell ourselves this, and time after time what answer do we get, no. To get a different answer we need to run in a different mind set. Daniel Quinn explains, the mind set that we are given is the river that we flow in. to flow down a different stream we need to erase memes that are crucial for an obedient river that stays in one flowing path.
Reading the book won't get you out of the continuous river, but it will acknowledge its ways. Making it knowledgeable to you might help you avoid it, and stop you from teaching it to your children. Therefore your children we'll be free minded and will make their own decisions.
A world with nature and no society is hard to comprehend for us. To other cultures who decided to try societies it wasn't that deep, infact it was right across the street. They had a clear view on what life outside civilization was like. The decision between civilization and freedom was a clear one to make without memes getting in the way. And most rookie civilizations chose the free life. Of course they "vanished", but they did live outside of chains.
That's what I got from the book. When you read it you might have a completely different perspective on life afterwards. You might completely disagree with him. At least you have the right away; and don't have to live a life in ignorance of what could have been or what could be.
Rating:
Summary: Changing the World through changing people's Minds
Review: Daniel Quinn is truly the man with his pulse on humanity's future; his realistic mindset is what sets him apart from other thinkers in the anti-civilization vein. Yes, I said "realistic," because DQ doesn't want us to abandon civilization, he wants us to abandon hierarchical power stuctures within our civilization. The man has stated that he himself is a great lover of civilization; he is not, however a lover of self-annihilation--nor am I. This book is a collection of aphorisms collecting in one place the ideas scattered into the so-called 'Ishmael Trilogy' comprising the books "Ishmael" "The Story of B" and "My Ishmael." One of the most useful things in this book is the index at the end that give page references to all of the thematic concepts put forward in the other three books. In all, this is a worthy companion to the 'Ishmael' books, but on it's own wouldn't be very approachable to most readers. Still, for the reason that it is out there with ideas that, if we start changing how we think about the world we can save it, and ourselves, is the kind of hopeful message that rates 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: WONDERFUL alternative...
Review: Sorry I got my fill of all this anarcho-primitivist crap when I was an avid punk scenester. Sure let's all go live in subsistence communes while regressing away technology. Sounds wonderful ya'll. I am tired of hearing how this book changes people's lives. This old fart has to have some of the worse prose I have ever read. Daniel Quinn a futurist? I bet Umberto Boccioni would roll over in his grave if he were ever hear that absurd claim. Don't read this book, even if your girlfriend forces you too. Actually do read it in that case, so you can realize what a moron she is and then dump her. Pure garbage...
Rating:
Summary: New Ideas for a New World
Review: This book is a must read for anyone hungry for some new ideas and actual practical answers to the problems of our society. Do you want freedom from your stone-dragger's lot in life? How can I make a living without giving up my soul?
If you need help with the first steps toward a fulfilling meaningful life this is a great guide.
If you want to cross over into the bold new frontier that lies beyond our civilization, this is your passport.
Rating: 
Summary: Going Backwards
Review: Since most of human evolution occurred while we lived in an environment that is closer to what Daniel Quinn describes than to a modern city, it is likely that many of us would feel more comfortable living in a simpler manner. Civilization, industrialization, computerization, etc. all create an 'un-natural environment'. Humans are designed to be quite flexible but some of us adapt better than others do to driving a car with a Global Positioning System-controlled voice that tells when to take a left and when to take a right in order to get to our destination. If you don't like all this technology, then head for a small town and simpler times...and use this book as your guide. For me, I love technology, I talk to my PC and he talks to me. I don't bother sorting my trash because I know that nanotechnology and robots will be going through our dumps in the next few decades and extracting all of the asbestos, mercury, lithium and other contamination that we all are dumping today. The only real solutions to the problems created by technology have always been more technology. That is the way it has always been. If you want to move to the countryside and do primitive, you can get a monthly magazine from the city and watch how we do it, that is your choice.
Rating:
Summary: Not well fleshed out
Review: I looked forward to reading this book. I consider myself to be an environmentalist, and try to reduce needless consumption on whatever ways I can in my own life. I was hoping the author would have some convincing arguements backed up by great research. Instead, what I found was a book that often referenced the author's other books (which I have not read and don't care to; they sounded like "new age" treatises) to drive home key points. The points made were not backed up by much factual information, rather just some thoughts the author had collected in his travels and theorized on. The print was too large, the pages too short, and the book too few total pages, to to leave much room for him to make an impact with his arguement. Needless to say, I was not affected by this book and came away disappointed that the author could not have made a more compelling case. If you are looking for a good book to sink your teeth into, that will provoke thought, that will grab you and not let go, this is not it.
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