Reviews

Ivan Illich's arguments are shrewd, open and passionate
The Guardian

I see the great value in the writings of Dr Illich precisely in the fact that they represent humanistic radicalism in its fullest and most imaginative aspect. The author is a man of rare courage, great aliveness, extraordinary erudition and brilliance, and fertile imaginativeness, whose whole thinking is based on his concern for man's unfolding - physically, spiritually, and intellectually. The importance of his thoughts in this as well as his other writings lies in the fact that they have a liberating effect on the mind by showing entirely new possibilities; they make the reader more alive because they open the door that leads out of the prison of routinized, sterile, preconceived notions. By the creative shock they communicate - except to those who react only with anger at so much nonsense - they help to stimulate energy and hope for a new beginning.
from the Introduction by Erich Fromm