Published regularly between 1968 and 1972, the Whole Earth Catalog listed products, such as books, maps, specialist journals, camping equipment, tools and machinery, alongside methods for building, planting and specialist articles on topics ranging from organic farming, resource depletion, solar power, recycling and wind energy. It was essentially a handbook for those wanting to live self-sufficiently, full of tips and suggestions. Today, its name is synonymous with the American counter-cultural scene of the late 1960s. The Catalog was the brainchild of Stewart Brand, who was the editor; together with his collaborators, the mathematician Lois Jennings and the industrial designer James Baldwin, the Catalog was published as a series of regular editions until 1972 and intermittent editions until 1998.

The Whole Earth Catalog embraced systems theory and cybernetic evolutionis; its conceptual stance of a holistic model for society was inspired by the works of the anthropologist Gregory Bateson, the theorist Marshall McLuhan, architect Buckminster Fuller and the mathematician Nobert Wiener. What began as an interest in communes and happenings (Brand was partly inspired by Drop City, the artists' settlement in Colorado) evolved into a long-lasting interest in computers and alternative technology. The Whole Earth endeavour became a way of researching how a grass-roots movement could be furnished with information and energy, of how it could become a reality. The Catalog's sister organistion, the Farallones Institute, which was funded by the same non-profit educational institution, the Portola Institute in Menlo Park, California, concentrated on developing alternative technology solutions.

There was nothing for sale in the Catalogs, instead they were a repository of information, giving contact details of retailers, prices for items, facilitating access. Its DIY approach valorised the amateur through providing what the catalog's strap line called, 'access to tools'. The ambition of the Whole Earth Catalog was huge; it was a paper based database that has been described variously as a conceptual forerunner to the Internet and as democratising access to information, likened in its operation to Google's earlier more benign ambitions. Over the years, the Catalog evolved into a number of different forms, including Whole Earth Supplement, Whole Earth Review, and CoEvolution Quarterly.