John Curl

John Curl has been a member of Heartwood Cooperative Woodshop in Berkeley for over thirty years, and has belonged to numerous other cooperatives and collectives. His historical writings includes History of Work Cooperation in America (1980). Memories of Drop City (2007) is his memoir of the 1960s commune movement. He is a translator and biographer of Inca, Maya and Aztec poets in Ancient American Poets (2006). His seven books of poetry include Scorched Birth, Columbus in the Bay of Pigs, and Decade: the 1990s. He is a longtime boardmember of PEN, chair of West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies, a social activist, and has served as a city planning commissioner. He is a professional woodworker, and resides in Berkeley, CA.

• Book events
• Reviews
• More from John

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Praise

“It is indeed inspiring, in the face of all the misguided praise of ‘the market’, to be reminded by John Curl’s new book of the noble history of cooperative work in the United States.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People’s History of the United States  

“John Curl’s book For All the People is a one-of-a-kind gem. He has done what no one else has by exploring the various permutations of ‘cooperation’ as a value system and as a movement throughout American history. He also makes clear that the cooperative alternative to wage-labor and exploitation still offers hope to those of us who want to see democracy permeate the world of work.”
—Steve Leikin, author of The Practical Utopians: American Workers and the Cooperative Movement in the Gilded Age

“The self-destroying machine of industrial consumer capitalism lurches toward its collapse, and those who come after will need the information and inspiration in this marvelously detailed book. It will suggest other and better ways of organizing society and its productive resources as we ultimately move toward a sustainable future.”
—Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging

“For the past two decades John Curl has been my favorite guide to Anarchism and Collectives in America. His passion for describing living models of face to face mutuality is a major contribution to the hidden history of cooperatives in the U.S.”
—David J. Thompson, author of Weavers of Dreams: The Founding of the Modern Cooperative Movement and 2010 inductee into the Cooperative Hall of Fame

“Written with integrity, intelligence, passion, and commitment, For All the People draws on deep experience and, if we read it well, provides a road map to the future.”
—Malcolm Margolin, author of The Ohlone Way and publisher of Heyday Books

“For historians, Curl’s book is a must. For young women and men considering the idea of starting a business they own and manage…. And for the philosophers among us, Curl does not ignore the theoretical threads.”
—Frank T. Adams, co-author of Putting Democracy to Work

“This new edition is greatly welcome, because we need a cooperative movement and spirit more than ever before. Curl surveys all, and explains much. New generations of readers will find this a fascinating account, and aging co-opers like myself will understand better what we did, what we tried to do, where we succeeded and where we failed. Get this book and read it, Curl will do you good.”
—Paul Buhle, coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left, founding editor of Radical America (SDS).

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Book Events

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Reviews

• Lessons for Building a Cooperative Movement: An Interview with John Curl
• For All the People in Science and Society
• Cooperatives and Community Work Are Part of American DNA
• P2P Foundation Review of For All the People
• For All The People Reviewed in The Berkeley Daily Planet

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Interviews

• Interview with KALW Radio City Visions
• Listen to John Curl on Clearing the Fog Podcast
• A Znet Interview with John Curl: Interview by Gabriel Kuhn
• Watch John Curl Interviewed about For All the People

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Mentions

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Blog

• Interview with KALW Radio City Visions
• Reclaiming the American Commons