Rating: 
Summary: Trite
Review: For a guy that did such a great job with Ishmael, I get the feeling he has nothing more to say. Beyond Civilization is more like a "cheat sheet" rather than a book. Authors that have hits, again like Ishmael, will always have a hard time following it up. At least he's trying.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful but not up to its promises
Review: Honestly, I've been a bit disappointed by the book. The reason why it made this list, however, is that it makes us aware that human beings did not appear as civilization builders. Indeed, civilization was only one of the many experiments that humans tested in order to improve their lives. Quinn shows us that many cultures tried this experiment at one point in their history, but that they all gave it up because they quickly realized that (1) this lifestyle pushed them to work more than ever before, and (2) it favored an uncontrollable growth that put in danger their ecosystem. Quinn's message is that it is time for us to do the same thing: it is now obvious that our civilization does not work well at all, and it is on the verge of being eliminated by natural selection (putting our ecosystem in danger puts us in danger!). Thus, even though our cultural myths implicitly tell us that civilization is the greatest accomplishment of human beings, it is now time to realize it is not true and to walk away. Now the real question is "How can we walk away?" Do not read this book if you are just looking for easy and quick answers because you will not find them. What Quinn proposes is to (1) become aware of our cultural myths (the purpose of Ishmael), and (2) change them to a more sustainable mythology of the way we live. Thus, by teaching our children and other people around us about the failures of our own culture and the successes of other cultures, we should be able to have a better vision of human life and how human beings can live sustainably within the community of life. Quinn goes on saying that the tribal way has been working for hundreds of thousands of years, as it provides what people really need: A sense of belonging and of purpose. He then gives a few examples of how people, nowadays, could form small groups and start sharing their resources and monitoring their impact on their environment. Their is real hope and a future for the human species beyond civilization. Walk away from it and find your own creative ways to adopt a sustainable lifestyle!
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond Civilization?
Review: In "Beyond Civilization" Daniel Quinn has yet again demonstrated his mastery of timely wordcraft. Quinn writes directly to the guilt-ridden, urban middle-class who sense something is dreadfully wrong with their lives, but are confounded by their intuitions. Once again, Quinn restates his ideas concerning the source of our contemporary cultural woes - the Agricultural Revolution which initiated a break from scavenging, gathering, hunting and Paleolothic tribal values. All this makes for interesting after dinner conversation, but Quinn still offers little in the way of solutions for making any real difference. Possibly, we do not need to go beyond civilization (which is no more than a cultural myth). If we are to make any meaningful difference for our children and the neighbors children, we must live in the now and become native to this planet. For starters, we must establish boundaries around what is left of Earth's wild places so we can learn how to live in harmony with other life. We must voluntarily limit childbirth to replacement of self. We must stop poisoning the Earth with petrochemicals of all kinds. Kill your television and replace your lawn with a garden. Obey the Golden Rule. And most importantly, immediately withdraw from the whirlpool of envy and guilt that keeps flushing us down the consumerist cesspool.
Rating: 
Summary: The First Stepping Stone, Perhaps...
Review: Keeping in mind that for Quinn, writing this book was something like pulling teeth, BEYOND CIVILIATION is a rather impressive little work. As a deeper reader of the books that have influenced Quinn, I can see where he cut corners and generalized. I can't blame him. The works and words belong to other people, and are presented in detail in other works. BEYOND CIVILIZTION should only be seen as the canon that shoots the curious into those other works. If Quinn didn't say it once, he certainly said it a thousand times: THERE IS NO ONE RIGHT WAY TO LIVE. So hop to it. Read the book and take it from there.
Rating:
Summary: Walk Away
Review: While the style of this book is sometimes pretentious, it does convey an emotional stance towards modern society which will become more vital for those of us in the "First World" to assume. Quinn evokes that exhaustion we all sometimes feel with the absurdity of civilization's clamorings. It seems to me that this book comes at a time when more and more people are desiring a simpler, more secure, less volatile lifestyle. Many of us inherently share Quinn's view that more and bigger programs are not going to fix things, because they themselves are part of a large-scale world that has little relation to what people really need and want as human beings. I was a little disappointed to see Quinn dismiss "communes" as good examples of tribal living. The contemporary Intentional Community movement has come a long way since the 60s (see www.ic.org), and there are many different communities and groups carving out social AND physical space in a manner similar to what Quinn espouses. But this book should be part of everyone's library.
Rating: 
Summary: How to restore sustainable tribalism?
Review: This is the best book I've seen yet about addressing the global crisis caused by Takerism. It's a starting point for desperately needed study on how our civilization can make progress restoring community, villages, tribes. This is a great pre-requisite for homepages about Quinn's ideas. Sand@Leavers.Org
Rating:
Summary: DQ's Worst Yet
Review: Daniel Quinn is an excellent author with wonderful ideas and a powerful writing style. However, this book is incredibly awful and you shouldn't waste your time or energy reading it. DQ attempts to go "Beyond Civilization" and help readers get to that place. He fails at this, miserably. I can't believe his publishers and editors unleashed this base work on the public. Read "Ishmael", "My Ishmael", even "The Story of B". DQ is a great writer and this is just one of his mistakes.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent points, hampered by the writing.
Review: The main point is that it's an indisputable fact that tribal works well for people, and Quinn set out to show that can still use the tribal lifestyle in a modern world. For some reason he only briefly explained the process of incrimentally working our way back into the same world as animals and undisturbed tribal people. But fortunately Quinn isnt a messiah, and his writing flaws aside, the points stand on their own. They are after all just observations of the way the world works, not expressions of Quinn's great genius. But frankly I'd like to see some other people pick up these ideas and do something with them.
Rating:
Summary: If you read one book by DQ, don't make it this one
Review: So, I'm going to give away the book:There's more than oneway to live. There's also more than one book to read, and itshouldn't be this one. The first book I read by Daniel Quinn was _Ishmael_. I found it to be profoundly moving. However, _BC_ takes a good 10 page essay about living live better and makes it into a cheap book. My advice: Buy Ishmael. Read it. Then read it again. Then read _When Corporations Rule the World_ by David Korten. Then you'll be itching to change the world.
Rating:
Summary: How to fix the world
Review: This is the greatest bathroom book ever written. Each page is a seperate heading, and though the whole thing flows as a book, you could tear the pages out and read each invidiually and learn something from each. If you are sick of feeling like you are trapped in a civilization not of your making, and wonder if there is a way out: this is a road map.
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