The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community

by David C. Korten

Kumarian Press Inc. and Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. 399 pages

 

David C. Korten gained an international reputation and helped to spark the global resistance movement in 1995 with the launch of his first book When Corporations Rule The World. Now Korten has launched The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community and readable and comprehensive analysis of the legacy of “Empire” and the potential of turning toward a people-centered “Earth Community”. The Great Turning emphasizes the critical point at which we stand in history – it is time where we must choose our future. As a result of forces of our own creation we are entering a period of dramatic and potentially devastating change that is now largely beyond our control. However, Korten argues that it is within our means to embrace this crisis as an opportunity to lift ourselves to a “new level of species maturity and potential”. This is an imperative component of the work of activists who challenge the current global structure – without hope for positive change for all of humanity what is any activist’s effort worth? Obviously, precious little. And Korten walks his talk, he is board chair of the Positive Futures Network which publishes Yes! A Journal of Positive Futures (check out Yes! online at www.yesmagazine.org) and offers community building websites at www.greatturning.org, www.developmentforum.org, www.davidkorten.org. Korten, initiated as an elder upon his 65th birthday, takes his role as a global mentor to heart, it is well worth exploring his vision of the future as outlined in his newest book.