The four essays collected in this volume, originally written between 1989 and 2002, essentially provide a basic and accessible introduction to the mature thought of the late radical sociopolitical philosopher, Murray Bookchin (1921-2006), whose greatest influence has been within North American environmental activist and left-libertarian circles. In the essays, he lays out his theory of social ecology, which connects the will to dominate nature to the emergence of human hierarchies and later the development of capitalism; discusses the role of the city in developing a radical ecological politics; defends social ecology against other trends of environmental and social thought; and describes his theory of communalism, an attempt to go beyond what he perceived as the failures of Marxism, anarchism, and revolutionary syndicalism, along with its relationship to libertarian municipalism. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)