Against the Machine

On the Unmaking of Humanity

De: Paul Kingsnorth

Narrado por: Sebastian Humphreys

How a force that’s hard to name, but which we all feel, is reshaping what it means to be human

In Against the Machine, “furiously gifted” (The Washington Post) novelist, poet, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth presents a wholly original—and terrifying—account of the technological-cultural matrix enveloping all of us. With masterful insight into the spiritual and economic roots of techno-capitalism, Kingsnorth reveals how the Machine, in the name of progress, has choked Western civilization, is destroying the Earth itself, and is reshaping us in its image. From the First Industrial Revolution to the rise of artificial intelligence, he shows how the hollowing out of humanity has been a long game—and how your very soul is at stake.

It takes effort to remain truly human in the age of the Machine. Writing in the tradition of Wendell Berry, Jacques Ellul and Simone Weil, Kingsnorth reminds us what humanity requires: a healthy suspicion of entrenched power; connection to land, nature and heritage; and a deep attention to matters of the spirit. Prophetic, poetic, and erudite, Against the Machine is the spiritual manual for dissidents in the technological age.

©2025 Paul Kingsnorth (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The most powerful and important book I have read in years. This book should be required reading not only for politicians, technocrats, teachers and all who help shape our world, but for every still-living soul in this terrifying age of the Machine.”—Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary

“Something in our common life has long seemed bewildering, even ominous, and Paul Kingsnorth makes it finally clear what we're up against. The gears clanking around us are not working at random, but with increasingly inhuman intent. Now I see what I must do. Now I understand.”—Frederica Mathewes-Green, author of Facing East

“Against the Machine is an eloquent and erudite critique of the perils of modern technology. But it’s much more than that. It’s a searching, moving meditation on the fate of humanity in a world where money and mechanism have displaced meaning.”—Nicholas Carr, author of Superbloom and The Shallows

an answer to the question

Paul gives us not more ammo for complaining, but instead points us toward a solution, or the many solutions.
-Fr. Moses Locke

spot on

a perfect analysis of our current cultural predicament.
wow, I already shared it with all my friends
simply brilliant

Very well written, yet pessimistic

Against The Machine is well written and exposes the disturbingly dark web of modernity that is entwined through every fiber of our culture. After listening to this, I would have to describe the modern milieu as more of a cancer than a machine, with only the death of the host organism as a way to kill it. Only radical self-denial and asceticism can free a person from the machine, and even then not entirely. The audio narration is top notch.

Great Book. Not the best Narrator.

I loved everything about this book except for the narration. Maybe it's just me, but the narrator often sounded a bit sassy at times and over the course of the entire book, it started to get on my nerves.

rain dancing home

sunflower, warrior, bone and tatters king,
broken sword, naked body, flash of white,
a scream in the dark—then days and days and days
coming to at the sound of gulls,
waves lick the crashed coracle,
homeless, all of us.
build here.

A must read for modern times

Kingsnorth is able to put into words a foreboding which I believe has been growing in the hearts of many in the western world as well as a positive way forward. This is an honest and uncomfortable assessment of the cultural zeitgeist which has lead to modernity. As such, he pulls no punches and I don't believe that there will be many who will be open minded enough to not get their hackles up when his critiques hit too close to home. Keep an open mind and humble heart when going through it and you will be a better human by the end.

Politics will not save us.

This title is sure to outrage both your woke lefty friends and your righty tighty buds as well. That is because it exposes the source of our current cultural crisis as not the policies of "the bad/other guys", whoever they may be, but as the very form of our modern economic, cultural, literary, artistic and psychological forms. There are no bad guys at whom you can now point the finger. All you can do is set yourself and your house in order and begin the project of spiritual and cultural renewal.

Wonderfully wild thought

The book resonated with something I knee to be true but couldn’t identify. A wild new yet old viewpoint regenerating the faith I already had without asking me to compromise. So honest.

Incredible

Read this and join the rain dance. These words might be the most hopeful I’ve heard in a very long time.

Very important read.

This is one of the most important books of our time. I strongly encourage everyone to read it.