The Crash Course: The Book   (April 23, 2011)


The Crash Course is now available in book format.

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





"This guy is THE leading visionary on reality. He routinely discusses things which no one else has talked about, yet, turn out to be quite relevant months later."
--Walt Howard, commenting about CHS on another blog.


NOTE: contributions are acknowledged in the order received. Your name and email remain confidential and will not be given to any other individual, company or agency.

Thank you, Thomas M. ($20), for your most generous contribution to this site-- I am greatly honored by your support and readership.   Thank you, George B. ($5), for your much-appreciated generous contribution to this site-- I am greatly honored by your support and readership.




Or send him coins, stamps or quatloos via mail--please request P.O. Box address.

Subscribers ($5/mo) and contributors of $50 or more this year will receive a weekly email of exclusive (though not necessarily coherent) musings and amusings, and an offer of a small token of my appreciation: a signed copy of a novel or Survival+ (either work admirably as doorstops).

At readers' request, there is also a $10/month option.

The "unsubscribe" link is for when you find the usual drivel here insufferable.

 
 
Your readership is greatly appreciated with or without a donation.
For more on this subject and a wide array of other topics, please visit my weblog.

                                                           


All content, HTML coding, format design, design elements and images copyright © 2011 Charles Hugh Smith, All rights reserved in all media, unless otherwise credited or noted.

I would be honored if you linked this essay to your site, or printed a copy for your own use.


                                                           


 





Making your Amazon purchases
through this Search Box helps
support oftwominds.com
at no cost to you:


Add oftwominds.com to your reader:

Survival+   blog  fiction/novels   articles  my hidden history   books/films   what's for dinner   home   email me