Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Example and American Prospects | 
| Author: Dmitry Orlov
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $10.43
You Save: $7.52 (42%)
New (12) Used (4) from $10.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 3535
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0865716064
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780865716063
ASIN: 0865716064
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081006210455T
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In the waning days of the American empire, we find ourselves mired in political crisis, with our foreign policy coming under sharp criticism and our economy in steep decline. These trends mirror the experience of the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. Reinventing Collapse examines the circumstances of the demise of the Soviet superpower and offers clear insights into how we might prepare for coming events. Rather than focusing on doom and gloom, Reinventing Collapse suggests that there is room for optimism if we focus our efforts on personal and cultural transformation. With characteristic dry humor, Dmitry Orlov identifies three progressive stages of response to the looming crisis: - Mitigation-alleviating the impact of the coming upheaval
- Adaptation-adjusting to the reality of changed conditions
- Opportunity-flourishing after the collapse
He argues that by examining maladaptive parts of our common cultural baggage, we can survive, thrive, and discover more meaningful and fulfilling lives, in spite of steadily deteriorating circumstances. This challenging yet inspiring work is a must-read for anyone concerned about energy, geopolitics, international relations, and life in a post-Peak Oil world. Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad and immigrated to the United States at the age of twelve. He was an eyewitness to the Soviet collapse over several extended visits to his Russian homeland between the late eighties and mid-nineties. He is an engineer and a leading Peak Oil theorist whose writing is featured on such sites as www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net and www.powerswitch.org.uk.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Overall Spot ON Observations September 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Orlov provided those who will listen with a grain of salt because he even insists that the reader take his ideas as the framework and not the blueprint for the collapse-a guide for the dark immediate future. Neither he nor anyone else knows exactly the detailed way the collapse will occur. This book is amazing in the way it cuts to the bone of the cultural and philosophical underpinnings that blind most of us. His speculation on the future fallout is instructive but sometimes a tad hyperbolic in my opinion. I could be wrong and I know that all the horrors he proposed as possible scenarios are realistic. I am a pragmatist but one who thinks it won't be as awful. Don't get me wrong. I am planning on getting property I can secure and sustain myself and some close friends!
That said the collapse of America is inevitable, imminent and there are certain systematic failures he discusses that everyone needs to understand even better than him (that is quite a learning curve to take on) in order to survive and adapt. Good luck and read it.
You must make his understanding your own to your immediate circumstances and start now. That is why you must know this better than him. Your future depends on it.
This is one book that could save or rather salvage your future.
Surpringly Enjoyable - and funny! September 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Perhaps it is just me but the author seemed to have a great blend of humor combined with dire forecasting ability merged throughout the book. Contrary to most Doom and Gloom books, this didn't have that feeling of overwhelming hysteria but rather a calm "matter of fact" attitude about it which I found enjoyable.
I purchased the book after hearing the author during an interview so may have been partially influenced by that - however, the overall tone of the book still sets it apart from most. Personally, I enjoy the opportunity to compare and contrast the current financial, political and social status of the USA versus other nations so particularly found it enjoyable to read the perspective of someone familiar with both.
Although I may not share the authors total outlook, the book is well worth the time to read in its own right. Entertaining, informative and different from the "run of the mill".
Bottom line - buy it you'll like it.
I felt a chill going down my back! September 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Being just a normal guy, but having been to neighboring Ukraine 4 times since 2002, I can say that I can validate Orlov's observations and his conclusions what will happen to the USA when collapse occurs. The people in Ukraine live like it is 1940, and their self sufficiency reminded me of making lye soap in a huge black kettle with my grandmother on my grandparents' farm in Texas. Almost nothing was bought by them other than salt, coffee, and spices, and always in bulk containers, and then carefully stored in a cellar. They raised all their meats, most of it then smoked for easier storage, and then stored in deep ceramic crocks with a lard seal. Firewood collection for the home was at least a two week event. Air Conditioning? Could not afford it. A good milk cow was golden...take very good care of her.
Orlov's book and my visits to Ukraine have allowed me to see how vulnerable we in the USA are, and that there are worse things than being stupid...that is...thinking you are smart when you really are stupid. Makes for an even further humiliating and decisive fall with fewer coping mechanisms with which to survive. The visits and this book made the unthinkable not only plausible, but a likely event. I wish to thank Orlov for his writing as I systematically prepare for the barter economy.
Laughing All the Way to the Brink August 19, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a truly funny book about the collapse of a major empire. That would seem impossible, except it's true.
Orlov describes exactly what it's like when the wheels stop turning inside a huge country, something most Americans probably thought very little about when we "won" the Cold War. He was quite young at the time, which probably explains why this little book has a droll, light-hearted tone. It was probably wasn't all that amusing for those who were over 60 and watched the meaning of their entire adult lives circling the drain, but if you plan to survive a major collapse, a sense of humor is clearly one of the better things to have.
That thought alone is worth the price of admission because there are indeed chilling parallels, quite visible among the quips, between the USA today and the USSR then. Military overreach, crushing debt, corrupt and atherosclerotic leadership....surely it couldn't happen here? Oh, wait...
Unique & Powerful & Immensely Readable August 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the best new book I've read in perhaps five years. It ranks with Kunstler's _Long Emergency_, Richard Heinberg's _Powerdown_ and _The Party's Over_, and Jared Diamond's _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ as the most enlightening, well-written works of the last decade.
I say this both as somebody who's using the book to teach environmental sociology and just as an ordinary citizen who reads a lot of new books.
And the bonus is that Orlov, who moved to the US at age 12, manages to combine his profound perspective and careful, razorlike concepts with a humane, personal, and wry (and presumably Russian/Soviet?) sense of humor and pathos.
I found myself laughing and making copious notes and underlines in equal measure. I will be keeping this treasure close at hand...
|
|
|
