Kirkus Review

Nietzsche was right when he spoke of eternal return. After all, Woodstock came back, mud and all. Now, 25 years after the publication of the Whole Earth Catalog, comes this new edition designed to tell us where we can get the books, seeds, and software we need to live well. Luckily, this book looks to be a lot more relevant than the silly concert redux. Under the stewardship of Rheingold (The Virtual Community, 1993, etc.), some of the more doe-eyed utopianism of the original Catalog has given way to a cannier view of what it takes to get by in the world without becoming a rapine, sexist, racist, exploiting, polluting establishment lout. Technology, for instance, is now our friend. There are seven pages on cyberspace, offering resource information about bulletin boards and tips for the Internet. There's a section on women's health; lists of activist groups; and scads of stuff for econauts and other environmentally conscious folk. Presented in a postmodern stew of text and image, this Catalog is like a Table of Contents to the Zeitgeist--or the coolest Yellow Pages around.