Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self. In this landmark book, Eisenstein explains how a disconnection from the natural world and one another is built into the foundations of civilization: into science, religion, money, technology, medicine, and education as we know them. As a result, each of these institutions faces a grave and growing crisis, fueling our near-pathological pursuit of technological fixes even as we push our planet to the brink of collapse.

Fortunately, an Age of Reunion is emerging out of the birth pangs of an earth in crisis. As our old constructs of self and world dissolve in crisis, we are entering a new narrative of inter being, a more expansive sense of self, and a more ecological relationship to nature. Our darkest hour bears the possibility of a more beautiful world—not through the extension of millennia-old methods of management and control but by fundamentally reimagining ourselves and our systems. Breathtaking in its scope and intelligence, The Ascent of Humanity is a remarkable book showing what it truly means to be human.

About the online version of the book

The following material is from the penultimate draft of The Ascent of Humanity. A few proofreading comments and footnotes haven’t been incorporated, but overall, the content is 99% congruent with the print version of the book now available on Amazon.com. I have put the entire text on line because I believe it is important for these ideas to circulate as widely as possible in the present time of crisis. In the book, I write of a coming shift from a profit-taking economy to a gift economy, from an economy of “how can I take the most?” to “how can I best give of my gifts?” This future, in which the anxiety of “making a living” no longer drives us, will arise out of the transformation in the human sense of self that is gathering today. But it is not only a future. We can live it now too. It is in this spirit that I offer you The Ascent of Humanity on line. Click here to read more.