The People's Apocalypse

This is a book about the end times: The ground we stand on will fall into the sea or God will stomp down from the sky (he’s really pissed now).

We are ready.

We’ve prepared for this day by hoarding grain, reading scripture, raising chickens, arming ourselves against each other, and building solar ovens for the post-apocalyptic pizza party.

We are impatient.

We’ve tried to hasten the end with prayer and waste, environmental activism and holy wars.

We are hopeful.

We’ve imagined zombies and King-Kong-sized Jesus; post-civilization utopias where salmon crowd the rivers again and new vines climb to hide all the old fast-food architecture.

We are survivalists, anarchists, environmentalists, U.S. Army special ops, visionaries, poets, zinesters, and Christian fundamentalists.

We are average: According to Pew research, 41% of Americans believe Jesus Christ will return by 2050.

This is a book about personal apocalypses: When our gardens die, when all is lost, when our hearts feel ruined, we the people rise—we soften ourselves to meet the chaos. In the rubble of it all, our worst fears realized, we build some small fire and warm our hands. And as night falls, we see that the moon and stars still rise, too, with or without us, and we begin to relax.

Featuring new work by Derrick Jensen, Roy Coughlin, Evelyn Sharenov, Yasmin Elbaradie, Tomas Moniz, Dena Rash Guzman, Linda Rand, Margaret Elysia Garcia, Bonnie Ditlevsen, LaSara Allen, Vickie Fernandez, Dani Burlison, Matty Byloos, Mai’a Williams, and many others.