In 1999 Paul Hawken wrote, "What seemed so evident to early readers of "Small is Beautiful" still seems painfully opaque to the world today. When the book was first published, many thought that change would come about through insight, logic, compassion, and reason. Increasingly, it seems that change will come about after we have exhausted every other theory of greed and gain, and the winds of change are no longer metaphorical, but force five hurricanes destroying whole regions. That the world should become so immune to its own losses seemed inconceivable 25 years ago. Now that we have re-learned how remarkably obtuse humankind can be when dazzled by monetary and material gain, we must shine the light all the brighter on the singularity and prescience of Schumacher's work and vision." What follows are excerpts from EF Schumacher's 1973 classic, with commentaries by David Brower, Hazel Henderson, Satish Kumar, and many others.
