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Point Foundation: San Rafael, CA U.S.A.
ISBN: ISSN 0749-5056
Reviewed by Mike Mosher, Assistant Professor, Art/Communication Multimedia, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center Michigan 48710 U.S.A. E-mail: mosher@svsu.edu


The Whole Earth Review soldiers on after over one hundred issues, and we are all the better for it. Now edited by Peter Warshall and published by Jay Kinney (remember his 1960s underground cartoons?), the now-quarterly journal carries forth both the ideals and style set thirty years ago by founder Stewart Brand in the Whole Earth Catalog and subsequent projects. I had last looked at the Review with serious interest a decade ago when it was edited by Howard Rheingold, and after purchasing a few issues made a point to skim it each month at the local library. But I hadn't, so this reading had the feeling of catching up with an old friend.

Recent Whole Earth Reviews appear as varied and provocative as those in the early 1990s. The Winter, 2000 issue cover proclaims "Tools are Revolution" beside a grinning robot head, and this issue is guest edited by Kevin Kelley. Kelley is now best remembered as the editorial force shaping WIRED magazine in its first few years. This issue has the feel of the old Whole Earth Catalog in its listings of quality products for living, camping and informative reading accompanied by personal testimonies. There is also an interview with architect Maya Lin, and Mark Frauenfelder explains the Web's "blog" sites.

The Summer, 2000 issue showcases Beyond Left and Right: a Special Section on Political Alternatives. It includes a reprinted article on Catholic Worker activist Dorothy Day and Julius Lester's 1989 reevaluation of the antiwar Movement and Black Panther Party. A forum unites short statements by a neoconservative, a democratic socialist and a Green. Justin Raimundo discusses the "party of permanent war" uniting both Democrats and Republicans in the United States. Richard K. Moore of cyberjournal.org writes-in theoretical terms similar to Noam Chomsky's-of America's neoimperialist project as a twisted consensus reality analogous to that constructed in the movie "The Matrix". Yet despite interesting positions what the section lacks is practical politics, discussion of building organizations that can effect change on the neighborhood, local or regional level. Artists and scientists are certainly among those who need to sharpen these skills. Elsewhere in the magazine are discussions of the present and future ethics of medicine and an interview with guitarist Carlos Santana.

The Fall, 2000 issue called for an all-species inventory, ranging from the microcosmos to Amazonian marmosets, British bird-fleas, E.O. Wilson's ant farm and Vladimir Nobokov's blue butterflies. Also in that issue is a section on the bioregion Hawai'i [editor: note apostrophe], including both lush color photographs and an appraisal of the islands' sovereignity movement.

Each issue of the Whole Earth Review is smart, philosophical, and scientific enough to provide something new for the general reader. Beneath it all there seems to be a pragmatic mix of Green and Libertarian political outlook The Review is well-traveled and has a gentle sense of humor. Like the best of its Sausalito and Marin County, California neighbors it has a worldliness and assuredness that--ever since its days as CoEvolution Quarterly in the 1970s--has long served it well.

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