Many of you are already familiar with Chris Martenson's "The Crash Course" video and website. Chris now has a book version which joins the small shelf of books I recommend as starting points for understanding our collective future: The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future Of Our Economy, Energy, And Environment.

Those of you who have seen Chris lecture know he has a very down-to-earth, succinct, data-driven approach to explaining Peak Oil and Peak Everything, and he has brought these same characteristics to the book.

Anyone giving The Crash Course book as a gift this year is going to look very prescient come 2012.

I appreciate that Chris doesn't claim to have a crystal ball about the future (nobody has one); instead, he offers several plausible scenarios and frames a practical perspective that invites any level of participation: what Chris calls "step zero," the step before Step One.

I know Chris personally, and while that undoubtedly colors my assessment of the book, I don't think it the key factor in my recommendation. A job well done, Chris--thank you for putting the Crash Course into book form.

Like many of you, I have read dozens of books on peak oil, the financial mess, etc. etc., and while I have learned valuable things from all of them, I would recommend a handful as especially suitable for those to whom these concepts are new.

The general context of the future:

The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future Of Our Economy, Energy, And Environment

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

Financial Armageddon: Protecting Your Future from Four Impending Catastrophes

The Long Descent: A User's Guide to the End of the Industrial Age

The Fourth Turning

The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History

The Future of Life

The nature of risk and markets:

The (Mis)behavior of Markets

The Great Crash 1929

The history and study of societal collapse:

The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization

The Collapse of Complex Societies

The Fall of the Roman Empire

History of capitalism and global trade:

The Structures of Everyday Life (Volume 1)

The Wheels of Commerce (Volume 2)

The Perspective of the World (Volume 3)

Alternatives to "wealth means owning my own private island and jet"

Early Retirement Extreme: A philosophical and practical guide to financial independence

Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation

The latter is my own work, and if I had to characterize what it adds to the mix, I would hazard that it covers the consumerist mindset and speaks directly to the politics of our experience and the role of enterprise and localized political action going forward.

Please review my entire list of books and films if you haven't done so recently.


Readers forum: DailyJava.net.



Order Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for Yourself and the Nation (free bits) (Mobi ebook) (Kindle) or Survival+ The Primer (Kindle) or Weblogs & New Media: Marketing in Crisis (free bits) (Kindle) or from your local bookseller.

Of Two Minds Kindle edition: Of Two Minds blog-Kindle

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