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Visionaries

The 20th Century's 100 Most Important Inspirational Leaders

by Freddie Whitefield, Satish Kumar

Reviews

Book Review

Derby Line, VT
by Richard D. Wright
August 2007

Visionaries offers 100 two-page profiles of men and women who have made noteworthy contributions in ecological, social, and spiritual fields. Each profile includes the subject’s picture, several quotes, and a 400- to 500-word write-up. In the introduction, editors Satish Kumar and Freddie Whitefield admit their list of 100 visionaries is subjective and that, naturally, other names could have been included. Theirs is, however, “a list of those who have influenced the ethos of Resurgence, a British magazine noted for ecological and spiritual thinking, have been featured in its pages, and have made a profound impression on the magazine.” Although some of the names will be more familiar to British readers, the majority of those chosen are well known to Americans. These include, for example, Rachel Carson, David Bohm, Scott and Helen Nearing, Thomas Berry, and Rupert Sheldrake under the section “Ecological Visionaries”; Martin Luther King, Jr., Bob Dylan, Gregory Bateson, E. F. Schumacher, and Albert Schweitzer under “Social Visionaries”; and Jiddu Krishnamurti, Thomas Merton, Joseph Campbell, Kathleen Raine, and Carl Gustav Jung under “Spiritual Visionaries.”

Kumar grew up in India, was for several years a Jain monk, worked for Gandhi’s vision of land reform, became a wandering pilgrim, and since 1973 has lived in Britain, where he edits Resurgence and is program director at Schumacher College in Devon. The 85 contributors are all people knowledgeable in their fields who write about their choices with understanding and passion. Of additional interest is a concluding section, “Further Information on Visionaries,” that offers four pages of book titles and webpages for those who wish to study individual visionaries in greater depth.