Radical Middle Newsletter
Thoughtful Idealism, Informed Hope

 

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Selected E-mails to the Editor

ARCHIVES:

The Very Best of Radical Middle

Access All Mark Satin Articles, 2005- 2009

Access All Mark Satin Articles, 1999- 2004

Access John Avlon Articles, 2004-2006

RADICAL MIDDLE, THE BOOK:

Book's Home Page

Book's Preface

Author's Publicity Schedule

Press Clips and Blog Snips

RESPOND TO OUR ARTICLES AND VIEW OTHERS' RESPONSES:

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Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2008 - 2009

Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2007

Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2006

Feisty E-mails to the Editor, 2005

Feisty Letters to the Editor, 2002-04

Feisty Letters to the Editor, 1999-2001

WHO WE ARE:

About the Editor (In-House Version)

About the Editor (By Marilyn Ferguson)

About Our Wonderful Pledgers

About Our Board of Advisors

About Our Sponsor, the Center for Visionary Law

RADICAL MIDDLE  CONGRES- SIONAL SCORECARDS:

109th and 110th Congresses (2005-08)

108th Congress (2003 & 2004)

107th Congress (2001 & 2002)

RADICAL MIDDLE POLITICAL BOOK AWARD WINNERS:

1980 - 2009, Complete

SOME PRIOR RADICAL MIDDLE BOOKS:

50 Best "Third Way" Books of the 1990s

25 Best "Transformational" Books of the 1980s

25 Best "New Age Politics" Books of the 1970s

SOME PRIOR  BOOKS BY MARK SATIN:

New Options for America (book drawn from New Options News- letter, 1983-92)

New Age Politics: Healing Self and Society, 1976

Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada, 1968

25 Best “Transformational” Books of the 1980s

I. INTRODUCTORY NOTE FROM EDITOR MARK SATIN

A wonderful thing happened in the 1980s: Thousands of writers and activists began developing what many of them called a “transformational alternative” to the traditional left and right.

What they wanted was to change society fundamentally -- not by revolution, but by encouraging each of us to pay attention to such foundational issues as the scale of our institutions, our relationship to nature, and our deep-seated attitudes and values.

Although transformational writers and activists typically received scant attention from the national media, they had a salutary effect at the grassroots level (see, e.g., the collaboratively produced “Ten Key Values” statement), and helped lay the groundwork for the radical middle politics of our own time.

All blue links below will take you to that book's page on Amazon.com (n.b.: we receive a small but vitally useful stipend from Amazon for every book purchased after linking to it via this website). Books preceded by a star (*) have won one of our annual Radical Middle Political Book Awards; see HERE for an annotated list of all winners from 1980 through 2008.

So, enjoy!

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II. THE 25 BEST

* Walter Truett Anderson, ed., Rethinking Liberalism

* Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

* Lester Brown and the staff of Worldwatch Institute, State of the World (annual editions from 1984-2000s - our Book Award winner was published in 1988)

Fritjof Capra, The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture

* Herman Daly and John Cobb, Jr., For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future

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Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich

* Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time

* Marilyn French, Beyond Power: On Women, Men, and Morals

Willis Harman, Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st Century

* Paul Hawken, James Ogilvy, and Peter Schwartz, Seven Tomorrows: Toward a Voluntary History

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* Hazel Henderson, The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics

Jane Jacobs, Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life

* Jane Mansbridge, Beyond Adversary Democracy

Corinne McLaughlin and Gordon Davidson, Builders of the Dawn: Community Lifestyles in a Changing World

Toni Morrison, Beloved (novel; reviewed by us HERE)

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John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives

* Charles Peters, How Washington Really Works

Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman, In Search of Excellence: Lessons from Americas's Best-Run Companies

Michael Phillips and Salli Rasberry, Honest Business: A Superior Strategy for Starting and Running a Business

Jeremy Rifkin, Entropy: A New World View

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Kirkpatrick Sale, Human Scale

Andrew Schmookler, Out of Weakness: Healing the Wounds That Drive Us to War

* Charlene Spretnak and Fritjof Capra, Green Politics: The Global Promise

* Robert Theobald, The Rapids of Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Turbulent Times

Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave

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III. STILL NOT SATISFIED?

See our picks of the best visionary political books from the 2000s, HERE; from the 1990s, HERE; from the 1970s, HERE.

 

THE RADICAL MIDDLE CONCEPT:

WHY "Radical Middle"?

50 Thinkers and Activists DESCRIBE the Radical Middle

50 Best Radical Middle BOOKS of the '00s

10 Best Radical Middle MAGAZINES

25  Arguably Radical Middle POLITICIANS

GREAT RADICAL MIDDLE  GROUPS AND BLOGS:

Over 250 Great Radical Centrist GROUPS and  Organizations

50 Great Radical Centrist BLOGS

NOT JUST RADICAL MIDDLE:

10 Best U.S. Political NOVELS

50 Current Activist MEMOIRS

50 Current Political IDEOLOGIES

Organizations REFLECTING 50 Political Ideologies

50 Current Political  MANIFESTOS

Fiction and Memoirs ABOUT Ideologies

25 RED- HOT RADICAL MIDDLE INITIATIVES:

Ashoka

Breakthough Institute

Center for Court Innovation

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Consensus Building Institute

Environmental Defense Fund

Ethical Markets

Future 500 [corporations & NGOs]

Giraffe Heroes Project

Global Business Network

Information Technology & Innovation Foundation

Institute for Alternative Futures

Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies

International Network on Therapeutic Jurisprudence

National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation

NDN/New Politics Institute

New America Foundation

No Labels

Politics of Trust Network

Progressive Policy Institute

Republican Main Street Partnership

RESULTS

Search for Common Ground

Third Way

Transpartisan Alliance

World Future Society

SOME PRIOR RADICAL MIDDLE INITIATIVES:

Generational Equity and Communitarian platforms,1990s

U.S. Green Party's "Ten Key Values" statement, 1980s

New World Alliance, 1970s

Civil Rights Movement, 1960s (your editor is HERE, 6th from bottom)