Now he has partnered with Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, to produce a popular account of world-ecology for non-academics.

Moore presented his theories at length in Capitalism in the Web of Life, an academic volume that can charitably be described as confusing and difficult to read. Moore combines this account with a philosophy, mostly borrowed from Bruno Latour, that claims to eliminate all binaries-human and non-human, capitalist and proletarian, and especially society and nature-by merging them into what he calls “bundles” or “assemblages.” He condemns any attempt to consider such categories separately, even for analytical purposes, as “Cartesian dualism,” a philosophy that was “fundamental to the rise of capitalism,” and is “directly implicated in the colossal violence, inequality and oppression of the modern world.” The major ecological concepts he deems guilty of that thought-crime include the Anthropocene, Earth System science, and (above all) metabolic rift theory, the core of ecological Marxism. All subsequent developments, including the industrial revolution, imperialism, monopoly capital and neoliberalism, are just adjustments within the 16th century framework, caused by long-term shifts in the cost of the “cheaps” - mainly raw materials and workers - that capitalism requires.

Moore has vigorously promoted himself as the inventor and chief theorist of something he calls “world-ecology,” described in this book as “a way to think through human history in the web of life.” In his view, which he presents as an extension of Marxism, Europe’s pillage of human and natural resources in the Americas in the 16th century established a capitalist world-ecology that continues to this day. Although it is by no means an airport quickie book, it shares their principal defect: the title promises a lot, but the book doesn’t deliver.įor some time, Jason W. The authors and publisher of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things must have had such books in mind when they chose its title and designed its cover. They are the publishing equivalent of junk food, quickie books written to match titles that were invented by the marketing department to generate impulse purchases. Ian Angus is a Canadian ecosocialist activist, editor of the online journal Climate & Capitalism and author of Facing the Anthropocene (2016) and A Redder Shade of Green (2017). This review was first published in International Socialism Journal 157 as “Illusions of World-Ecology.”Ī HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN SEVEN CHEAP THINGS: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the PlanetĮvery airport bookstore features books with titles like 10 Ways to Retire Rich, 150 Places You Must Visit Before You Die, or 8 Easy Steps to a Flatter Tummy, with the numbers in very large type on their covers. Moore replaces concrete analysis with an artificial schema that reduces the complex organic relationship between society and the rest of nature to cheap things

Ian Angus says a new book by Raj Patel and Jason W.

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