Whole Earth Catalog

The Whole Earth Catalog was the brainchild of Stewart Brand (1938–), who first published it in 1968. It was essentially a catalog of ideas, books, new technologies, and other ideas Brand thought were worthy of wider notice. It was an alternative, off-beat publication that in many ways symbolized the spirit of searching that characterized the late 1960s.

Like any other catalog, the Whole Earth Catalog offered a wide variety of items, accompanied by short descriptions and pictures. Unlike other catalogs, nothing was for sale. Believing that "information wants to be free," Brand wrote the catalog as a way to get lots of good information to as many people as possible. The catalog accepted no advertising and only reviewed those items that the editors thought would be a positive force for change. In the first edition of the catalog, Brand focused on a few key areas of knowledge, including the environment, shelter and land use, communications, community, and learning. The section on shelter and land use, for example, had ideas for better, more energy-efficient housing design, solar and wind power, and other alternative technologies.

Part of Brand's mission with the Whole Earth Catalog was to put power back in the hands of the people, an attitude that was very much a part of the late 1960s youth counterculture. Brand said the catalog's purpose was to empower "the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested." In the late 1960s, because young people were fed up with government, their parents, and the powerful in society, they sought to take their lives and futures into their own hands, on their own terms, and live by their own values, not those given to them by society. The Whole Earth Catalog, and its later updates and additions, helped people find the tools to live by their own values. Brand later won the National Book Award for his work with the Whole Earth Catalog. He published numerous updates and a magazine, Whole Earth.

—Timothy Berg

For More Information

Brand, Stewart, ed. The Whole Earth Catalog. Self-published, 1968; San Rafael, CA: Point Foundation, 1998.

Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties. New York: Bantam, 1987.

Rheingold, Howard, ed. The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog: Access toTools and Ideas for the Twenty-First Century. San Francisco: Harper-SanFrancisco, 1994.

Whole Earth.http://www.wholeearthmag.com (accessed March 18, 2002).