California Journal

"The reform in thinking is a key anthropological and historical problem. This implies a mental revolution of considerably greater proportions than the Copernican revolution. Never before in the history of humanity have the responsibilities of thinking weighed so crushingly on us. --- History has not reached a stagnant end, nor is it triumphantly marching towards the radiant future. It is being catapulted into an unknown adventure." - Edgar Morin --- In 1969, California is not just the new Eldorado, it is the crucible where civilization is accelerating, self-destructs, and is reborn. It's the probe of Spaceship Earth. It's the hippy phenomenon, the communes, the ecological movement, the great collective ceremonies like park-ins and rock concerts, the flourishing of sects ranging from mystics to Marxists, the experience of "weed" and "acid." These are all temporary images and elements of a search for a new truth, a new religion, a new society. Long before it became fashionable for European intellectuals to write about their voyages to the United States, Edgar Morin, one of France's leading intellectual figures and, at that time, known as a path-breaking and innovative sociologist and researcher of popular culture, recounts the story of his experiences in the cauldron of change that was California, including his encounters with some of the leading minds of that time. Now translated in English, California Journal combines Morin's account of his experiences with his own search for answers to fundamental questions about the human condition. For a few months, the author had a profound feeling of being drawn into the heart of the "great questions," played out personally and societally. The result is an engaging and prophetic work that has as much if not more to offer today than it did when it was first published in French.