Ecosocialist Notebook

Introducing ‘A Redder Shade of Green’

Ian Angus’s new book of ‘essential debates at the intersections of socialism and science’ will be available soon. Here’s what some early readers say about it.

Ian Angus’s new book of  ‘essential debates at the intersections of socialism and science’ will be available soon. Here’s what some early readers say about it.


I have spent the last few weeks putting the finishing touches on my new book, A Redder Shade of Green: Intersections of Science and Socialism. Three steps left: final proofreading, indexing, and printing. It will be published in June, but the publisher and many online bookstores are now accepting advance orders.

I’m very pleased with it, but since it isn’t polite to brag, I will let Monthly Review Press and some early readers explain why you should order it now.

Ian


From the Monthly Review Press spring catalog:

As the Anthropocene advances, people across the red-green political spectrum seek to understand and halt our deepening ecological crisis. Environmentalists, scientists, and ecosocialists share concerns about the misuse and overuse of natural resources, but often differ on explanations and solutions. Some blame environmental disasters on overpopulation. Others wonder if Darwin’s evolutionary theories disprove Marx’s revolutionary views, or if capitalist history contradicts Anthropocene science. Some ask if all this worry about climate change and the ecosystem might lead to a “catastrophism” that weakens efforts to heal the planet.

Ian Angus responds to these concerns in A Redder Shade of Green, with a fresh, insightful clarity, bringing socialist values to science, and scientific rigor to socialism. He challenges not only mainstream green thought, but also radicals who misuse or misrepresent environmental science. Angus’s argument that confronting environmental destruction requires both cutting-edge scientific research and a Marxist understanding of capitalism makes this book an essential resource in the fight to prevent environmental destruction in the twenty-first century.


And some comments by early readers:

JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER
co-author (with Paul Burkett) of ‘Marx and the Earth’

“Ian Angus demonstrates that twenty-first century socialism is necessarily ecological and that twenty-first century ecology is just as necessarily socialist. He achieves this remarkable result by means of debates, polemics, and arguments that serve to reunite socialism with science and ecology with the humanity’s long revolution for sustainable human development. This is a profound work of hope that draws its strength from its courageous confrontation with the challenges and burdens of our time.”


HANNAH HOLLEMAN
author, activist, and professor of sociology, Amherst College

“A unique collection of articles explaining highly consequential debates in the natural and social sciences, as well as in environmental politics and theory. In a wonderfully accessible way, Angus clarifies the real-world implications of these debates and their importance in the struggle for a better world.”


DANIEL TANURO
author of ‘Green Capitalism: Why it Can’t Work’

“A Redder Shade of Green is brilliant, useful and well documented. In face of the ongoing environmental catastrophe that capitalism cannot prevent, the author convincingly calls for a new alliance between Marxism and natural sciences. It would be a tragedy, indeed, if the left cannot seize the opportunity of a powerful science-based challenge to the present social order.”


FEDERICO FUENTES
editor of Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

“More than just a series of incisive contributions that seeks to integrate Marxist social science and Earth System science, A Redder Shade of Green is a much-needed call for a new scientific ecosocialism of the 21st century.”


JOHN FORAN
professor of sociology and environmental studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

“Beautifully written, engaging and illuminating, these essays offer a strong case for ecosocialism as a fusion of the sciences of nature and an updated Marxism, both recast now under the shadow of the Anthropocene.”


MARTIN EMPSON
author of ‘Land and Labour: Marxism, Ecology and Human History’

“Ian Angus has long been at the forefront of bringing together the socialist and environmental movements and these thought-provoking essays demonstrate his wonderful ability to make complex scientific and political ideas accessible. For those fighting for a sustainable society in the face of fossil fuel capitalism, they offer important insights, powerful polemics, and much food for further debate.”