Ivan Illich was one of the twentieth century's most radical critics of industrial society, and Tools for Conviviality articulates his vision of a humane alternative. Written in 1973, the book argues that modern institutions, from transportation to medicine to education, have grown beyond human scale to become counterproductive. Cars that were supposed to save time now trap commuters in traffic. Schools meant to spread knowledge create credentialed hierarchies. Hospitals designed to heal generate iatrogenic illness. Illich, a Catholic priest who left the institutional church, proposes the concept of conviviality to describe tools and institutions that enhance human capability without dominating human life. A convivial tool is one that anyone can use, without specialized training, to accomplish their own purposes. A bicycle is convivial; an automobile is not. A library is convivial; a compulsory school is not. The distinction is not between technology and nature but between tools that serve people and systems that make people serve them. Illich's critique anticipated later concerns about technological unemployment, bureaucratic rationality, and the medicalization of ordinary life. His positive program, calling for limits on professional monopolies and institutional growth, remains challenging and easily misread as primitivist. Readers seeking an alternative to both techno-optimism and pastoral nostalgia will find Illich's careful distinctions valuable, even when his specific proposals seem dated.