Why read Columbus and Other Cannibals?

Book cover of Columbus and Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism

Book description

Celebrated American Indian thinker Jack D. Forbes’s Columbus and Other Cannibals was one of the founding texts of the anticivilization movement when it was first published in 1978. His history of terrorism, genocide, and ecocide told from a Native American point of view has inspired America’s most influential activists for…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Columbus and Other Cannibals as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Max Wilbert

Author

Why do people harm each other and the planet? Why do the rich continue to accumulate more and more wealth, when they already have all they need? When is enough, enough?

Those questions can be answered by social psychologists, environmental economists, historians, and other academics. But Jack D. Forbes’ book is perhaps the best explanation I have ever read. Drawing on the history of the colonization of North America, Forbes (Renape/Lenape) argues that modern civilization is based around “a spiritual sickness with a physical vector.” He calls it the wetiko disease: the desire to consume other beings, with no possibility…

From Max's list on The best environmental books of all time.