Toward a history of needs

Toward a history of needs by Ivan Illich. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780394410401.

Very good in very good dust jacket (some bleeding from the upper edge of the back cover to the interior of the dj, previous owne Hardcover first edition - New York:: Pantheon,, (1978). Hardcover first edition -. Very good in very good dust jacket (some bleeding from the upper edge of the back cover to the interior of the dj, previous owners name on front endpaper) . First printing. A collection of five essays on areas central to his concerns from useful unemployment to medicine, education, energy, the professions, transportation, and more - essays which argue that there is a widespread creation of false needs, a general neglect of real problems, and the creation of an elite of professionals who satisfy our false needs. As a writer, Illich was always provocative, and always worth reading - Britannica summed up Illich as an "Austrian philosopher and [former] Roman Catholic priest known for his radical polemics arguing that the benefits of many modern technologies and social arrangements were illusory and that, still further, such developments undermined humans self-sufficiency, freedom, and dignity. Mass education and the modern medical establishment were two of his main targets, and he accused both of institutionalizing and manipulating basic aspects of life." while his NY Times obituary described him as "a priest who thought there were too many priests, a lifelong educator who argued for the end of schools and an intellectual sniper from a perch with a wide view. He argued that hospitals cause more sickness than health, that people would save time if transportation were limited to bicycles and that historians who rely on previously published material perpetuate falsehoods." 143 pp.