“There are moments in our history in which the art of the written word captures the extraordinary beauty of the human condition as it hangs suspended in tenuous polarity at a tipping point of evolution. The Coronation is one of these moments.”―Zach Bush, MD
Controversy and despair, hope and isolation, courage and division, withdrawal and reunion. How can we find meaning as we emerge from the troubled time of Covid?
In The Coronation, social philosopher Charles Eisenstein presents key building blocks of post-Covid sense-making. These unforgettable essays narrate the disintegration of an old normal, and old reality, even, Eisenstein says, an old mythology. Controversial when they first appeared, these essays―with new introductions to each by the author―ring with relevancy as the charge dissipates from previously hot-button issues. Now, as we survey the post-Covid landscape, we have the opportunity to build something more sound, more whole, and more sane.
The Coronation brings new clarity to a vital question whose time has come: What world shall we choose now?
“An intelligent, compassionate, and uncompromising book . . . without falling into either partisan hysteria or a shameless defense of power. This is a necessary and brave read.”―Paul Kingsnorth, author of The Wake
*Individually, these essays have been read, shared, and discussed by tens of thousands of people around the globe, but are collected together and bound here for the first time!
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Charles Eisenstein is one of those courageous dissidents who also holds the faith that people can return to love after a hiatus of hate. As we go deeper into this new era of permacrisis, Charles’s writings will become ever more pertinent.”
―Professor Jem Bendell, professor of sustainability leadership; founder, Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS), University of Cumbria (UK); founder and former coordinator, Deep Adaptation Forum
“Charles Eisenstein has taken on the hardest task in the world―writing an intelligent, compassionate, and uncompromising book on the Covid-19 pandemic, without falling into either partisan hysteria or a shameless defense of power. This is a necessary and brave read.”
―Paul Kingsnorth, novelist; founder, Dark Mountain Project
“There are moments in our history in which the art of the written word captures the extraordinary beauty of the human condition as it hangs suspended in tenuous polarity at a tipping point of evolution. The Coronation is one of these moments. In between these words that are as prophetic as they are poetic is the space of our collective metamorphosis. Tread lightly and dive deep here to find your own sovereign beauty.”
―Zach Bush, MD
“If there’s one thing this dangerous collection of essays about the coronavirus pandemic shows, it is that the virus that irrupted into the stolid course of our everyday lives back in 2019 is something more than a pathogen: It is an indictment of the village by the masqueraded fool outside its fences; it is a composting of the colonial altars dedicated to the worship of the one true God of knowing, science; it is a crystallization of the racialized economies of suffering and quotidian violence behind the spectacular; it is an exposé on the theatricality of contemporary politics and the care it promises good citizens. It is thought itself. We’ve been visited by this wild ferocious goddess, and few can do as well as Charles does in tracing out an ethnography of her passing. Whether or not we agree with the maps Charles composes, we will need this struggle, this wrestling-together-with-our-exposed-selves, if we hope to thrive as an entourage species.”
―Bayo Akomolafe, PhD, author of These Wilds Beyond Our Fences
“Charles Eisenstein is one of the most original writers working today, and his essays on the social and spiritual impact of the pandemic event are among his best work. The Coronation is essential reading for anyone concerned about the damage that has been done to our societies and how we might recover and collectively go forward from here.”
―C. J. Hopkins, award-winning playwright, novelist, and political satirist
“Charles Eisenstein is one of the few voices worldwide who have the capacity to be critical and gentle at the same time. His work is brilliant, crystal clear at the logical level, evocative and eloquent at the stylistic level. Charles went down the road of rationality to the very end, and at the end of it, he entered a world of mystical and spiritual knowledge and beauty. Charles’s discourse contains the seeds of a new way of living together and of a true solution for the series of crises our culture is going through at this very moment.”
―Mattias Desmet, author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism
About the Author
Charles Eisenstein is a countercultural philosopher, essayist, speaker, and the author of several books, including Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible. He graduated from Yale University with a degree in Mathematics and Philosophy before spending the next decade in Taiwan, where he worked as a Chinese-English translator. He has four children, all boys, and currently lives with his wife in Rhode Island.
