Overview

Integrating both social and historical factors, this radical analysis of the development of capitalism reveals the ever-deepening relationship between capital and ecology Finance. Climate. Food. Work. How are the crises of the twenty-first century connected? In Capitalism in the Web of Life, Jason W. Moore argues that the sources of today's global turbulence have a common cause: capitalism as a way of organizing nature, including human nature. Drawing on environmentalist, feminist, and Marxist thought, Moore offers a groundbreaking new synthesis: capitalism as a ""world-ecology"" of wealth, power, and nature. Capitalism's greatest strength - and the source of its problems - is its capacity to create Cheap Natures: labor, food, energy, and raw materials. That capacity is now in question. Rethinking capitalism through the pulsing and renewing dialectic of humanity-in-nature, Moore takes readers on a journey from the rise of capitalism to the modern mosaic of crisis. Capitalism in the Web of Life shows how the critique of capitalism-in-nature - rather than capitalism and nature - is key to understanding our predicament, and to pursuing the politics of liberation in the century ahead.

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9781781689011

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Reviews

If nothing else, the climate crisis demonstrates that the history of capitalism is a thoroughly environmental one. This energizing book proposes an inventive framework for making sense of that past, and for orienting ourselves as we get down to the business of changing the future. Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine A magnificent voyage from Potosi to Sao Tome, from the African slaving frontier to wetland drainage in Europe, from massive deforestation in Norway to the rise of the Vistula breadbasket. A magisterial rethinking of world environmental history. Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley Nature is not a foundation, container, or resource; it is us. As Moore tells us, we must live history as if nature matters. Donna Haraway, University of California at Santa Cruz If you re interested in cutting-edge ecological thinking, Capitalism in the Web of Life is a must-read. Moore s scope is vast, and few could pull off as ambitious an analytical achievement as he has here. There s enough scholarship, wit and insight to leave your copy with margin notes on every page, and ideas for a lifetime. A landmark book. Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved Moore s radical and rigorous work is, and richly deserves to be, agenda-setting. China Mieville An exciting major work that puts forward a new paradigm of world-ecology. Immanuel Wallerstein, author of World-Systems Analysi s A superb and much needed book, rigorous, groundbreaking, yet accessible. Christian Parenti, author of Tropic of Chaos From the Trade Paperback edition.

If nothing else, the climate crisis demonstrates that the history of capitalism is a thoroughly environmental one. This energizing book proposes an inventive framework for making sense of that past, and for orienting ourselves as we get down to the business of changing the future. Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine The achievement of Moore s book is to move past a metaphysical concept of nature towards an historical one Such a rich historical understanding of world-ecological regimes is going to be of vital importance. McKenzie Wark, Public Seminar Capitalism in the Web of Lif e seeks to analyze the root cause of this impasse for environmentalism: the widely-shared view that the environment is a separate and unique part of existence outside of capitalism that capitalism devalues. New Inquiry Nature is not a foundation, container, or resource; it is us. As Moore tells us, we must live history as if nature matters. Donna Haraway, University of California at Santa Cruz If you re interested in cutting-edge ecological thinking, Capitalism in the Web of Life is a must-read. Moore s scope is vast, and few could pull off as ambitious an analytical achievement as he has here. There s enough scholarship, wit and insight to leave your copy with margin notes on every page, and ideas for a lifetime. A landmark book. Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved Moore s radical and rigorous work is, and richly deserves to be, agenda-setting. China Mieville An exciting major work that puts forward a new paradigm of world-ecology. Immanuel Wallerstein, author of World-Systems Analysi s A superb and much needed book, rigorous, groundbreaking, yet accessible. Christian Parenti, author of Tropic of Chaos Probably the most significant work of eco-Marxism out there. Benjamin Kunkel, author of Utopia or Bust The type of theory we should all be pursuing If you don t have a copy of this thing already, you should get one. Samuel Fassbinder, Daily Kos A magisterial rethinking of world environmental history. It makes for a major work of synthesis and theory. Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley Jason Moore s Capitalism in the Web of Life is, above all else, an ambitious book Moore sets out to do nothing less than to articulate, under the name of world-ecology, a new paradigm for critical scholarship on capitalism, world history, and environmental thought that will transcend, once and for all, the dualism that for him is the singular source of all of the violence of modernity. Sara Nelson, Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography Moore s theoretical contribution, and it is major, is his insistence that value is determined by, and capitalism is dependent upon, what he calls the Four Cheaps His examples are wide-ranging and historical. Moore is at his best in this book when he not only ranges across centuries but also ranges across numerous fields of thought, most notably laboring to overcome the divide between Marxist value theory and ecology. Juliana Spahr, Mediations: Journal of the Marxist Literary Group From the Trade Paperback edition.

Author Information

JASON W. MOORE is Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Binghamton University, and Coordinator of the World-Ecology Research Network. He writes frequently on the history of capitalism in Europe, Latin America, and the United States, from the long sixteenth century to the neoliberal era. His research has been recognized with many international awards.

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