This was a spontaneous library borrow that I am glad I stumbled upon. Mr. Hartmann very simply lays down the most dire political, economic, environmental, and cultural problems facing humanity in the 21st century. He gives a brief history of how these problems came into being and how we have exacerbated these issues with ignorance and/or denial. His solutions involve more government, they involve higher taxes, they involve overturning the Supreme Court's decision to label corporations as people. [...]

I was very impressed with this book's intrioduction and had high hopes that it would go beyond the early incisive critique into more productive ideas about how to change. The book became repetitive and I was disappointed that later chapters that seemed to promise to be about something other than what he identifies as the 4 main values that plague Western culture kept going back to the same main arguments of early chapters. Not as substantive or hopeful as I'd thought from its intro. Another book [...]

Thom Hartman’s book is depressing. In its short 240 pages, he breaks down the different ways in which western culture is destroying the planet in near irreparable ways. In what can be called an antithesis to the Thomas Friedman approach of bottomless zeal, his bleak outlook focuses mostly on the unsustainable nature of western culture and the uncontrollable growth imperative of our capitalist system. By laying out these problems bare, he hopes that readers change the fundamental ways in which [...]

Thom Hartmann's 2009 book "Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture" was impressively ambitious in scope. The core message was a fresh warning that our American culture, and indeed almost all of the world's contemporary cultures, are on an unsustainable and disastrous path.The book is overtly political, and summarizes American history as an experiment in democracy from 1776 to 1980, and then an experiment in corporate fascism from 1980 to the present, and he makes a good case that our fascist ex [...]

This is a great book because it takes into consideration the foundation of successful political legislation to environmental sustainability. Using Maslow's theory of survival, Hartmann's argument is that the success of any government is grounded on the natural resources that support it. Once the basic needs of humans are depleted, we are relegated to war, death, and destruction. The only argument that I have against this book is that many of the political views are entirely one sided. While I ag [...]

"The Iroquois Confederacy, which our constitution was largely inspired by, required that all decisions be based on their impact on the seventh generation, and placed women in positions of equal power with men."What the %^$& happened between then and now? Mr Hartmann mostly discusses that in his new book. "As a result of a twenty-eight-year-long deregulatory spree, we've reached the point where it's painfully difficult for government to undo the damage done to our economic infrastructure by a [...]

I love Thom Hartmann and I agree with 99% of what he says but this book didn't really do it for me. It was too meandering and redundant without really offering anything new. Yes, Reagan sucks, but we need to sort of move past that. I also didn't really think that he added more value to the debate on the environment. This just seemed to lack the true depth of something like The Shock Doctrine and seemed too short and anecdotal to be considered "research." Maybe I'm being kind of harsh but I expec [...]

A follow-on to "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" (which has more detail and I liked better), this book sketches out what Hartmann sees as the solutions to the world's emerging crises, key among them a change in the worldview of western culture. He pins his hopes for this unlikely scenario on the latest of the periodic disruptions (our current economic crisis) caused by unrestricted greed and waste, but admits it could just as easily get worse. This is a thought-provoking book for anyone who h [...]

Great book, easy and quick read. It's a bit repetitive, a little too focused on political ideology in parts. It could use a great deal more depth in substance and solutions. However, I give it 5 stars for the intellect and genuine passion for wanting to move the world forward with compassion and progress. I think for what it lacks as mentioned, an intelligent and compassionate reader can be inspired to take their thoughts a little more outside the box. That's where the real solutions are. Only g [...]

Quality yet relatively surface introduction to the factors that are responsible for our troubled state of affairs. Deals with economic and environmental issues as they relate to human actions and choices but as far as steps to resolve/alter the direction we are heading, if you are looking for more than a pep talk based on a small number of case studies then you are reading the wrong book.That said this is a fantastic introduction and will leave you wanting more details and hopefully concrete act [...]

It isn't so surprising that this book plays fast and loose with the facts; that, after all, is hardly an affliction that strictly exists on the left side of the political fence. The frustrating thing about this book is the failure to think through the consequences of his program. With that said, there's some interesting discussion (if unnecessarily tendentious) about some things not often connected to this kind of argument -- and the environmental discussions are interesting.

There are some outrageous theories put forth, but some of them actually might work. Did you know that parasites in the human body can help prevent symptom of allergies and MS? Depressing book alright, but we need to take note of what has happened in the past and what we can do in the future to save life as we knew it, when the middle class was strong.

Hartmann has written a somewhat exaggerated liberal manifesto. The net impact of this book was just to make me more dogmatically certain of the importance of reforming health care, reducing carbon emissions, changing the tax laws, limiting corporate influence in politics, and empowering women. Now if only we could just convince a few tens of millions more people . . .

Just a combo/condensed version of Thom's other stuff that, while pulling good info from many of his other books, lacks some of the focus that those other books to stress what is so important. If you've read the prophet's way, Last hours, Screwed, and WWJEFFERSOND?, you can skip this one. Nothing new here.

A bit more overtly-political than I anticipated (and at times one gets the sense that Hartmann likes the sound of his own voice a bit much), but the scope of Hartmann's knowledge and passion on the intertwining subjects of culture, politics, the economy, and the state of the planet are fascinated and impossible to refute.

Some very interesting chapters! There is a great range of diversity in this book! It kind of reads like a watered down version of Jared Diamonds Collapse with some progressive political rants thrown in!

This book sizes up the current political, economic and environmental morass the U.S. finds itself in very well. However, those who need to hear the message won't, and probably wouldn't heed it if they did.

Only read half of this , it's like three different NPR radio programs going at the same time

Really slams Friedman. Maybe biased but has some good points. Would need to do more research to really judge.

Thom Hartmann gets nauseating after a while.

I enjoyed it. learned much about how those with resoources are exploiting those without and that it has been warned to us since James Madison. Interesting stuff.

Thom Hartmann has a grasp on such a diverse range of subjects, and this book spins all them together to give a enlightening perspective of our culture's path, and how we got here.

If this book found a global following perhaps our blue planet home would sustain humanity longer than our present course. This was a good read.