The Fourth World

An Indian Reality

George Manuel author Michael Posluns author Glen Sean Coulthard editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Minnesota Press

Published:22nd Feb '19

Should be back in stock very soon

The Fourth World cover

A foundational work of radical anticolonialism, back in print


Originally published in 1974, The Fourth World is a critical work of Indigenous political activism that has long been out of print. George Manuel, a leader in the North American Indian movement at that time, with coauthor journalist Michael Posluns, presents a rich historical document that traces the struggle for Indigenous survival as a nation, a culture, and a reality. The authors shed light on alternatives for coexistence that would take place in the Fourth World—an alternative to the new world, the old world, and the Third World. Manuel was the first to develop this concept of the “fourth world” to describe the place occupied by Indigenous nations within colonial nation-states. Accompanied by a new Introduction and Afterword, this book is as poignant and provocative today as it was when first published.

"At the time of writing The Fourth World it would have been difficult (although not impossible) to predict the degree to which the recognition of Indigenous rights would come to serve as the cunning medium through which dispossession would be facilitated, not reversed, by the colonial state and international legal apparatus. In spite of his lifelong struggle, however, George Manuel's vision of decolonization for the Fourth World has yet to come to fruition, both nationally and globally. The Fourth World is nevertheless one of those rare examples of a book that continues to be relevant after forty-two years since its original publication"—Glen Sean Coulthard, from the Introduction

ISBN: 9781517906061

Dimensions: 216mm x 133mm x 38mm

Weight: unknown

320 pages