This book provides a highly accessible introduction to Social Ecology and Communalism, as it has been developed by one of the most exciting and pioneering thinkers of the twentieth century. Murray Bookchin's political philosophy suggests that the solution to the enormous social and ecological problems we face today fundamentally lies in the formation of a new citizenry, its empowerment through new political institutions, and a new political culture.

These four essays, written between 1989 and 2002 and collected here for the first time in this volume, provide an excellent overview of Murray Bookchin's political philosophy. 

Murray Bookchin (1921–2006) was a life-long radical—a trade unionist in the 1930s and 1940s, an innovative social theorist through the 1960s, a leading participant in the anti-nuclear wing of the Greens in the 1970s and 1980s, and co-founder of the Institute for Social Ecology. He was a prolific author and important thinker.

Editor Eirik Eiglad has been involved with the ideas and politics of social ecology for more than fifteen years. He edits the journal Communalism.

"We are standing at a crucial crossroads. Not only does the age-old 'social question' concerning the exploitation of human labor remain unresolved, but the plundering of natural resources has reached a point where humanity is also forced to politically deal with an 'ecological question.' Today, we have to make conscious choices about what direction society should take to properly meet these challenges."