Reading in a new decade

Ecosocialist Bookshelf, January 2020

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Mining in late capitalism; Green New Deal; The Pentagon and climate change; Big Oil vs democracy; Climate justice; Nature in Canada; History of human labor

Print Friendly, PDF & Email


Ecosocialist Bookshelf is an occasional feature. We can’t review every book we receive, but we will list and link to any that seem relevant to Climate & Capitalism’s mission, along with brief descriptions. Titles listed here may be reviewed in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that we agree with everything (or even anything!) these books say.


Martín Arboleda
PLANETARY MINE
Territories of Extraction under Late Capitalism

Verso, 2020
Rethinks the politics and territoriality of resource extraction, arguing that extraction entails much more than the mere spatiality of mine shafts and pits, Planetary Mine points towards the expanding webs of infrastructure, of labor, of finance, and of struggle, that drive resource-based industries in the twenty-first century.

Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Aldana Cohen, & Thea Riofrancos
A PLANET TO WIN
Why We Need a Green New Deal

Verso, 2019
Explores the political potential and concrete first steps of a Green New Deal, calling for dismantling the fossil fuel industry, building beautiful landscapes of renewable energy, and guaranteeing climate-friendly work, no-carbon housing, and free public transit. The authors argue that a Green New Deal in the US can strengthen climate justice movements worldwide.

Michael T. Klare
ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE
The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change

Metropolitan Books, 2019
While others still debate the causes of global warming, the Pentagon is intensely focused on its effects. Drawing on little-known reports and government documents, renowned security expert Michael Klare shows that the U.S. military sees the climate threat as imperiling the country on several fronts at once, and is developing strategies to cope with it. Its response shows that where it counts, the immense impact of climate change is not in doubt.

Rachel Maddow
BLOWOUT: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth
Penguin Random House, 2019
A switchback journey around the globe, revealing the greed and incompetence of Big Oil and Gas and its role in weakening democracies worldwide, fouling oceans and rivers, and propping up authoritarian thieves and killers. She argues for an end to subsidizing the wealthiest businesses on earth, for a fight for transparency, and for checks on the influence of the world’s most destructive industry and its enablers.

Edited by Kum-Kum Bhavnani, John Foran, Priya A. Kurian, & Debashish Munshi
CLIMATE FUTURES
Re-imagining Global Climate Justice

Zed Books 2019
Bringing together insights from interdisciplinary scholars, policymakers, creatives and activists, this book tries to envision planetary social movements robust enough to spark the necessary changes needed to achieve deeply sustainable and just economic, social, and political policies and practices.

Edited by Colin M. Coates & Graeme Wynn
THE NATURE OF CANADA
OnPoint Press (UBC Press) 2019
Short essays, photos and illustrations explore how indigenous communities, fishers, fur traders, farmers, foresters, miners and others have engaged with and tried to tame nature in Canada from the Ice Age to the Anthropocene — and what those engagements mean for efforts to reconcile economic growth and conservation.

Paul Cockshott
HOW THE WORLD WORKS
The Story of Human Labor from Prehistory to the Modern Day

Monthly Review Press, 2019
Using the dual lenses of Marxist economics and technological advance, Cockshott provides a stunningly acute critical perspective of human history, from pre-agricultural societies through slave-based societies to modern capitalist and socialist economies. Both a sweeping and detailed work of historical analysis and an important presentation of the materialist theory of history.

And don’t forget … 20 Essential Books on Marxist Ecology