Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228895 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 402 pages

Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
"A must read for everyone who yearns to create a positive human future."

From the Publisher
"An epic work. Exposes the myths that divide us and frames the stories that
can bring us together." - Danny Glover, Activist and Actor

"David Korten never fails to shake me out of my complacency, and reveal
complacencies I didn't even know I had. This work is a stunning and
compassionate tour de force, calling on history, science, economics, and
our human goodwill to illuminate the fact that we are at a fundamental
choice point. I can't stop thinking about the issues he raises, nor what
I'm going to do with my awakened consciousness. Thank you, David." -
Margaret J. Wheatley, author of the bestsellers Leadership and the New
Science and Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time

From the Inside Flap
"A must read for everyone who yearns to create a positive human future. In When Corporations Rule the World Korten called attention to the corruption of corporate-led economic globalization and helped to launch a powerful global resistance movement. In The Great Turning he tells us that the scourge of economic globalization is but a contemporary manifestation of 5,000 years of rule by imperial elites. It is a wise, profound, and practical book filled with fresh insights and is destined to be even more influential than Korten's previous contributions."

- Anita Roddick, Founder of The Body Shop

Customer Reviews

My vote for best big picture
Korten writes like a man on fire with care. He has spent decades trying to empower local communities around the world as they face enormous challenges. And this has always involved trying to influence top-down, overly centralized organizations -- to serve their clients more than they serve their managers. That experience gives Korten a global view from the grassroots up. It also gives him a potent mixture of practical insight, real compassion, and sheer moral fury. Now, instead of tinkering with pyramid-shaped organizations to make them somewhat more effective, he tries challenging the whole set of assumptions behind our traditional systems. He takes his best shot at a better, more compelling story of how we are changing and what we are putting behind us.

Like most big picture painters, Korten pulls together history, politics, science and spirituality. And in each of these fields he shows himself passionately insightful. I think the price of the book is worthwhile just for the myth-recasting reality-check on U.S. history. Many scholars, consultants, or religious leaders try to paint the big new picture. But Korten's particular experience gives him a pragmatism and universalism that is rarely heard. His vision of transition from an imperial-style system to a real earth community compliments Riane Eisler's vision of change from cultures of domination to partnership. And his presentation could hardly be more clear or forceful.

Huge Overview of Empire
If you are a curious type, and ever have wondered about the nature of huge multinational corps, how they came to be, and wondered about their reason for existence, and their relationship with the state...this is a book for you, the sheer scope of this book is amazing, Korten draws analogies from ancient 'empire' based societies from Greece, Persia, Rome...and shows that human motivations and actions have changed little over 5000 years, although initially a depressing view of the human condition, Korton suggests (persuasively in my opinion) that humans now have the ability and the information, to change human society, from the empire based, money driven, consumerist environmentally damaging lifestyle, to a more sustainable future of 'earth community'...surely we all know something will have to give ??
There is a huge amount of solid historical information in this book, from the formation of the Roman Empire, to the declaration of independance of the USA,...even if you reject some of Kortens analyasis, the story of human history contained is brilliant
very very well written, its not an easy an easy ride but I shall read it at least twice....excellent

The Greatest Story Yet
Maybe this is one of those books you have be ready for. I think I was ready but I'm going to have to read it again! It's a simple enough theme but it's scope is immense and it's very well constructed.

Released in November 2007 and just 2 reviews on Amazon though!? Come on people, stop reading Dan Brown and Harry Potter and get into this. Wave after wave of revelation. Your synapses will be buzzing for a long time and your life will never be the same again. Really.

If I had to recommend one book to explain what's going on with the world and how it's being run and ultimately a positive vision of change, then this is it. I hope my kids will read this one day.