Books

‘At once pragmatic and visionary, Finding Lights in a Dark Age is a meditation on how we might make the best of the difficult times ahead. Smaje brings every bit of himself to this
book, daring us to upend conventional wisdom about progress in service of a richer and more natural kind of human thriving. Count me in.’
Philip Loring, author of Finding Our Niche

‘The source of our collective insecurity has its roots in the land – and has erected fences to keep us out. Chris Smaje’s erudite and compassionate investigation shows that our own wellbeing cannot be secured without Earth’s. He offers a vision for how we, the people, can secure our future by giving the labour of our bodies to the land and to each other. In a time of warring narratives, Smaje’s call for sovereignty invites us to tear down the fences that exile us from our own histories.’
Rachel Donald, creator and host, Planet: Critical podcast

‘With a blend of deep academic wisdom and of-the-land pragmatism, Chris Smaje looks to a fascinating medieval history to show us how humankind can not only persist but thrive -reclaiming autonomy, community, even joy – in the face of civilizational collapse. Finding Lights in a Dark Age is indeed the antidote to our fear about the current looming global catastrophe. But it is also the push so many of us (myself included!) need to start working in our own small ways, now, for what might be needed in the precarious years ahead.’
Jennifer Grayson, author of Unlatched and A Call to Farms

‘In this literally vital work, Smaje gazes into the near-inevitable harrowing collapse that is the “future” of this civilisation, with a doughty realism – and a quotidian eye for the likely – that is rarely matched. He refuses to be daunted: he sketches, and quite beautifully so, “thrutopian” possibilities for what deep and transformative adaptations can yield for us, through what is coming. These begin with his wry setting out of how, quite often, as empires decline and fall, plenty of ordinary folk (not to mention other beings) can actually end up better off. This is probably Smaje’s most important book yet – and that is really saying something.’
Emeritus Professor Rupert Read, co-director, Climate Majority Project; author of Why Climate Breakdown Matters

‘Incisive and irenic, this is Chris Smaje at his wide-ranging best, exploring the territories of liveable-but-realistic human futures. Chris sweeps away the cobwebs of late-modern thinking to sketch what a sober pathway through the coming morass might look like. A guiding light!’
Carwyn Graves, author of Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape