When the Catalog reached the public in 1968, it argued that technology could be personal, living could be communal, and information could be free. That vision not only inspired a generation of back-to-the-land hippies, but has also shaped nearly sixty years of dreams about the future, influencing everyone from Silicon Valley founders and climate activists to space colonists and open-source advocates.

This collection features original writing that appraises the legacy of the Whole Earth project, excavates its deeper histories, argues its importance for understanding the present, and imagines the alternate realities it inspires. Each essay focuses on an artifact from the Whole Earth Index, the first complete online archive of the Whole Earth Catalog and its subsequent imprints produced by Gray Area in collaboration with the Internet Archive and the Long Now Foundation. With Whole Earth Redux, a fuller picture of an iconic publication comes into view—one that defies easy categorization and, though imperfectly and not always consistently, offers such a vision for technology at the scale of individuals, communities, and ecosystems.

Whole Earth Redux is generously supported by the Incite Institute at Columbia University.

About the Book

Paperback
174 pages
ISBN 979-8-218-84587-2

Featuring essays by: Leo Kim, Greg Castillo, Ana Tuazon, Jonathan S. Blake, Caitlin Kossmann, Kola Hewyard-Rotimi, Kristina Stallvik, Sebastian Fernandez-Mulligan, Annie Schneider, Samantha Culp, Matthew Halpenny

Additional contributions from: Chloe Loewith, Thomas Moynihan, Johanna Mehl, Lucas Gelfond, Alex Whee Kim, Echo Duemig, Jamie Cohen, Jo Lindsay Walton, Yidan Karel Li, Jacob Sujin Kuppermann

Edited by: Hannah Scott
Design and creative direction: Sharon Zheng
Web design and development: Jon Gacnik

Whole Earth Redux

Pre-order your copy today. Books begin shipping on February 25.

Whole Earth Redux: Archivist Edition

This special collector's package includes a custom USB drive containing the entire Whole Earth archive—that's a PDF of every issue on the Whole Earth Index. Carry the entire archive with you wherever you go. A portion ($45) of your Archivist Edition purchase is tax deductible.