In this updated collection of essays, Zerzan explores the understanding of how we got here and the actual depth of the human plight to struggle for a qualitatively better reality. Originally published in 1994, this edition includes all-new material from the well regarded philosopher.

The American anarchist, primitivist philosopher, and author John Zerzan critiques agriculture-based civilization as inherently oppressive and advocates drawing upon the life of hunter-gatherers as an inspiration for what free society should look like. Subjects of his criticism include domestication, language, symbolic thought, and the concept of time.

This book includes sixteen essays ranging from the beginning of civilization to today’s general crisis. Zerzan provides a critical perspective about civilization.

A People’s History of Civilization includes chapters about:

- Patriarchy

- The City and its Inmates

- War Enters the Picture

- The Bronze Age

- The Axial Age

- The Crisis of Late Antiquity

- Revolt and Heresy

- Modernity Takes Charge

- Who Killed Ned Ludd

- Cultural Luddism

- Industrialism and Resistance

- Decadence

- WWI

- Civilization’s Pathological Endgame

In recent years, John Zerzan has successfully toured Europe to speak from his primitivist perspective regarding contemporary civilization. Zerzan calls Eugene, Oregon home.