Books › Columbus and Other Cannibals
Columbus and Other Cannibals
First published 1992 · 344 pages
A radical, paradigm-shifting diagnosis of the spiritual sickness driving Western imperialism and ecological collapse.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like having the veil violently but necessarily pulled from your eyes. It is a heavy, sobering, and profoundly paradigm-shifting experience that diagnoses the violence of Western civilization not as mere historical events, but as a spiritual sickness, a cannibalistic disease of the soul. The prose is impassioned and uncompromising, demanding that the reader slow down and sit with uncomfortable, radical truths about extraction, exploitation, and ecological grief. It does not offer easy comfort, but rather a fierce, prophetic clarity. This is a text for those who want to dismantle their colonial conditioning and understand the psychological roots of modern capitalism through a deeply indigenous philosophical lens. It is urgent, devastating, and ultimately transformative.
- Mood
- heavy
- sobering
- paradigm-shifting
- intense
- Tone
- urgent
- righteous
- philosophical
- uncompromising
- prophetic
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- spiritual sickness of imperialism · indigenous wisdom · psychology of exploitation · ecological grief · radical decolonization
- The writing
- Direct, impassioned, and conceptually dense, blending historical analysis with indigenous spiritual philosophy.
- The arc
- Moves from a shocking re-evaluation of accepted history into a deep, sobering grief for the earth, culminating in an urgent call for spiritual healing.
- Who it's for
- Readers seeking radical, decolonial perspectives on history, ecology, and the psychological roots of modern capitalism.
Content notes
- genocide
- racism
- ecological destruction
- colonial violence
About the book
First published in 1978, Forbes’ history of terrorism, genocide, and ecocide told from a Native American point of view is updated with a new introduction by Forbes and a foreward by Derrick Jensen.
Description from Open Library.
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