For Rennie and for Hap Veerkamp and C.J. Harper, with special thanks to the members of the 1998 Houston Seminar, who played such a crucial role in the development of this book, and to Scott Valentine and Sara Walsh in particular—you kept us going and you kept me sane.

The homeless and the young are rapidly converging on the socioeconomic territory I identify in this book as "beyond civilization." The homeless have for the most part been thrust into it involuntarily, while many of the young unknowingly yearn for it, as anyone does who wants more from life than just a chance to feed at the trough where the world is being devoured. It is to them and their hopes that this book is particularly dedicated.