mark mathew braunstein mark matthew braunstein mark braunstein mark m braunstein m m braunstein

  ♦ RADICAL VEGETARIANISM ♦  A Dialectic of Diet and Ethic 

   ♦ Revised & Updated for 2010 ♦   

♦ LANTERN BOOKS published in January 2010 a revised RADICAL VEGETARIANISM

From the publisher's catalog: 

Now fully revised and updated, Radical Vegetarianism remains as "dialectical, but also a little diabolical" as when it was first published in 1981. Hailed as "remarkably intelligent" (Washington Post), the book takes on the canned canards, sacred cows, and wooly thinking of carnivores and vegetarians alike, and proposes a vegetarianism that transcends the stereotypes of potlucks and Birkenstocks to one that embraces contradiction and candor, and a raw truth that bucks conventional wisdom. Or, as Braunstein says (channeling the Ancients), “Gnaw Thyself.” 

“Vegetarians are not a better sort of people, just a better sort of carnivore,” writes Braunstein, “and carnivores are just a better sort of cannibal.” Erudite and polemical, idiosyncratic and passionate, Radical Vegetarianism is, as the author states, "not a voice of sanity amid so much madness, for the difference is moot and easy to refute, but a voice of the living amid the silence of the dead."

♦ You may read on the Lantern Books website: 


      ♦  About the title "RADICAL VEGETARIANISM"  ♦      

The book was radical when first published in 1981, but it is not so radical now. Looking back, some contemporary readers describe the book as pioneering and prophetic, praise which I can accept with alacrity. As a vegan since 1970, I can attest that two human generations ago few vegetarians and fewer carnivores knew the words VEGAN or VEGANISM, neither their definitions nor their tenets, hence my not titling the 1981 book Radical Veganism.

For the 2010 Revised Edition, some readers have suggested changing the title to Radical Veganism. But I shun the conventional pronunciations of VEGAN and VEGANISM with sharp G's, as in GUN, and thus brandish the very concept we would wish to banish. For 40 years, I advocated pronouncing VEGAN with soft G, which is to say as J, same as the soft G in the word VEGETARIAN. Obviously I failed in my campaign. But rather than be caught with a smoking V-Gun in my hand, I'll stick to my guns, and retain the title Radical Vegetarianism.

I could launch a campaign to abandon the word VEGAN altogether, and instead to adapt the new word VEGANARIAN, because its assumed soft G pronunciation is more acceptable to my innocent ears, but convincing others to accept the word itself would require more effort than I am willing to expend, so VEGAN with a sharp G it will remain.


   ♦ Downloads about VEGAN VEGETARIANISM ♦   

I know. "Vegan Vegetarianism" is redundant, but I ask you to indulge me. I much prefer to define our dietary and lifestyle proclivities simply as VEG, or even VEGHEAD. If the latter calls to mind the image of Mr. Potato Head, consider yourself fortunate that here I instead call us VEGANS.

You may download on the accompanying web page VEGAN VEGETARIANISM any of 15 articles selected from among my dozens that qualify as OLDIES but OLDIES, or in the jingo lingo of our day, as LEGACY literature. Spanning from 1980 to 1998, they first were handwritten, then typewritten, and then published in those olden days before the printing press was superseded by the internet. For a more complete listing of my other articles, please see my BIBLIOGRAPHY.  

 

   ♦ Downloads of the illustrations in RADICAL VEGETARIANISM ♦   

All the illustrations in the book are available as 900 pixel height medium compression jpegs on the accompanying web page VEGETARIANISM in ART 

 

 

  ♦ BOOK REVIEWS - excerpts ♦  

  • A remarkably intelligent book.  — The Washington Post
  • Radical Vegetarianism is a feast of words. ... If vegetarianism has its cult classic, this is it. — Animals’ Agenda  (read full review below)
  • This is a rare, inimitable book, one to savor and turn to, time and again. … It is thick with thought. … The poetic and pregnant ponderables make this guide to higher consciousness unique in the history of vegetarian literature. — Vegetarian Times  (read full review below)
  • A refreshing and stimulating alternative to the plethora of mundane diet books. — Healthful Living  
  • Thick with thought, this literary feast ... is vegetarianism's most eloquent and original voice. — Vegetarian Voice  (read full review below)
  • As a manifesto defending the vegan way of life, Radical Vegetarianism is the first of its kind. — International Society for Animal Rights Report 
  • One of the best books on vegetarianism, it is exceptionally well written and carefully reasoned. — The Trumpeter: Journal of Eco-Philosophy

 

  ♦ BOOK REVIEWS (PDF reprints) ♦  

 

  • Vegetarian Times 
  • reviewed in February 1982 by its founding editor Paul Obis, as well as by its associate editor Scott Smith and its columnist Ted Zagar, the three reviews appeared contiguous as a double-page spread (an 800K PDF, so please be patient while it loads) 

  •  
  • Animals' Agenda 
  • titled "Vegetarian Classic," reviewed in July 1990 by Victoria Moran, an author of many highly regarded books, including Creating a Charmed Life, Lit from Within, and The Love-Powered Diet

  •   
  • Vegetarian Voice 
  • reviewed in Fall 1993 by Kristin Aronson, PhD, a professor of philosophy

 

 

 

  ♦ TABLE of CONTENTS ♦  

 Part One: DIET

  • Nutrition in the Light of Vegetarianism
    Why not to eat flesh — The body has two healths: the physical and the spiritual. Mere nutrition fails which tends only to the former. Not only is physical health possible through vegetarianism, spiritual health actually demands such a diet.
  • Ashes to Ashes, Life to Life
    Why not to eat flesh, and why to eat fruit — We grow on fruits; fruits grow on trees; trees grow on us. What comes out depends on what goes in. Everything gotten must be given back.
  • Letter to a Young Vegetarian
    What to eat, and how to eat it — The simplest approach to nutrition is the best. The raw facts of a nourishing vegetarian diet are as simple as they are sensible, as delicious as they are nutritious.
  • Traveling Fast
    What not to eat, and how not to eat it — Away from home, maintaining a healthful diet may prove difficult. At such times it may be better not to eat at all. At the right time and place, the silence between the sounds makes the music.
  • The Milky Way
    Why not to drink milk — Lacto-vegetarianism is only a modified carnivorism. Complete vegetarians, also called vegans, abstain not just from animal flesh but from all animal products. What comes from an animal is animal.
Part Two: ETHIC
  • Animals and Infidels
    Why animals have a right to live — The religions of the West have turned their backs on animals, so we must turn to either the philosophies of the West or the religions of the East. Yet all we really need do is turn to the animals.
  • Carnivoral Death and Karmic Debt
    Why whoever lets animals live will live longer — The less suffering we cause to others, the less we ourselves will suffer. Eater and eaten, killer and killed, are one.
  • The Illogic of the Ecologic
    How to kill less by eating fruits and eating raw — The less we kill, the more that humans and animals have to eat. The human population can grow so long as its proportion of vegetarians increases. Yet such an alternative to world catastrophe may be only a postponement.
  • The Problem of Being a Flesh Eater
    How animals have been denied the right to live — Humans have persisted in carnivorism partially because they fail to acknowledge that eating flesh means killing animals. Our ignorance causes their deaths.
  • Apologetic Addendum
    Why humans also have rights, and how one of those rights just may be to eat animals — We do not know all the answers; we do not even know all the questions. The butcher is no less a human being than the baker or the candlestick-maker.

    Posthumous Postscript ["Animals, My Brethren" by Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz]
    References

 

 ♦ To order  ♦ 

♦ You can order Rad Veg from:

USA: 


international:

specialty: 
  • IndieBound (independent bookstore locator)
  • Better World Books (low-cost worldwide shipping)
  • Amazon (1981 & 1993 editions, used & cheap)
  • Alibris (1981 & 1993 editions, un-checkmark "eligible for free shipping") 
 
other citations:
  • World Catalog →to locate the holdings of public, school, and college libraries
  • Open Library →excerpts and bibliographical citations

 

internal links:

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