Elements of Refusal is John Zerzan's first book, collecting his best and most foundational essays, which lay out the core of his critique of civilization. In Part One, Zerzan brilliantly dissects the concepts of Time, Language, Number, and Art. Then in the last essay of the section, he makes the case against Agriculture, agreeing with Jared Diamond that the abandonment of our original hunter-gatherer lifestyle was "a catastrophe from which we have never recovered." Just as important is Part Two, in which Zerzan offers a radical and devastating critique of the Left, showing how communists, socialists, and unions have all collaborated with big business and industry in the gradual enslavement of human beings to the processes of production and automation. This is a reprint of the first edition from 1988.