Sara's Review of Hospicing Modernity

Sara O’Donnell

Book Review

August 31, 2025

Book Review: Hospicing Modernity

Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira provides a thoughtful, unique, and detailed analysis of the global systems of coloniality and a growth-based economy, together identified as modernity, as they fall into decline. This analysis centers around the concept of modernity, which appropriately describes the ways in which coloniality and growth paradigms have been internalized globally and combine to form the structures of the contemporary world. Machado de Oliveira aptly argues that modernity is fundamentally based on violence and unsustainability. Furthermore, Machado de Oliveira makes the prescient argument that humanity cannot imagine a world outside of modernity, because modernity is too engrained in our way of being. In this perspective, the only courses of action are to ‘hospice’ modernity – to assist the current global system in its death and actively participate in the formation of new societal structures that are more just and sustainable.

This book prompts deep self-reflection while asking readers to contemplate the gravity of dying global systems. Organized in an unusual style and written in powerful prose, Machado de Oliveira lays out the current, internalized global structure of human organization and interaction as humanity trends toward worsening social and ecological degradation. Broken into two parts, Hospicing Modernity first provides a clear explanation of modernity and identifies the root causes of current and historical social and environmental ills. Part I provides a detailed explanation about why this book is needed and offers frameworks for readers to examine the ‘truths’ they have been taught and the assumptions they make about the world. This section provides avenues for readers to situate themselves within modernity and it provides space for them to contemplate other ways of being and living.

Part II begins with a critical analysis of progress, development, and modernity’s ceaseless propensity to always move forward. Machado de Oliveira’s descriptions of modernity are clear and evocative as they address the ways that modernity limits our abilities to diagnose problems and identify solutions. Machado de Oliveira’s descriptions help to visualize the structures of modernity as it guides humanity along a violent and unsustainable path. Conceptual tools and diagrams, such as “Modernity as an Olive Tree”, “The House of Modernity”, and “Boxhead”, further aid in the visualization of the world through the lens of modernity.

The rest of Part II progressively walks readers through further self-reflection as tools to address and aid the death of modernity. In some ways, Machado de Oliveira’s emphasis on self-reflection could limit the strength of her argument about the dying global system. However, her use of personal narrative, her emphasis on interconnectivity, the importance she places on centering marginalized voices, and her holistic views on life all aid in her argument that the personal is political and all life is interconnected. In her perspective, self-reflection is not solely an individual action, but one that has collective and long-term repercussions. Only by understanding ourselves, our communities, and the ways we are deeply tied to the rhythms of the world will we be able to transition towards more just and sustainable ways of living. 

Machado de Oliveira’s training in education and academia shine through in the unusual structure of the book. By providing exercises at the end of each section, she prompts readers to deeply contemplate the complexity of their own lives and to examine the ways that modernity manifests in their own thoughts and actions. While these exercises are tedious at times, they continue to remind readers that modernity is not only ‘out there’ in the world but is also internal to each person. Such an argument has the power to intimately connect readers with the death of modernity and the enactment of other modes of being. Furthermore, it directly connects the personal and individual to the political and the global.

Ultimately, Hospicing Modernity provides a unique perspective on increasing social ecological degradation that is the result of violent and unsustainable global systems based fundamentally on endless growth. This book has the ability to provide readers with the tools to understand their own lives as functions and products of modernity while also providing them with the agency to assist in modernity’s death. By pinpointing modernity as the global system in decline, Machado de Oliveira includes important analyses of social and power imbalances (i.e. racism, colonialism, global north/global south dynamics) that similar arguments that pinpoint capitalism as the root cause are not always capable of. Modernity is a broader and more nebulous diagnosis, meaning that it can encompass more history, ambiguity, and complexity than similar arguments made about the current economic system.

Despite its sometimes tedious exercises and interactions with the reader, this book offers a relevant analysis about why the world is the way it is, what potentials the future holds, and how readers can participate in a systemic transition from modernity to an unknown future. Machado de Oliveira’s personal narratives, use of poetry, and inclusion of educational exercises add to the depth and creativity of her writing, ultimately maintaining the importance that the personal is political and that all life is deeply entwined in the metabolism of the world.