Ecosocialist Bookshelf is a monthly column, hosted by Ian Angus. Books described here may be reviewed at length in future. Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that C&C agrees with everything (or even anything!) these books say.
Julian Cribb
EARTH DETOX: How and Why We Must Clean Up Our Planet
Cambridge University Press, 2021
Our chemical emissions are six times larger than our total greenhouse gas emissions. They are in our food, our water, the air we breathe, our homes and workplaces, the things we use each day. Julian Cribb describes the full scale of the chemical catastrophe, and proposes ways to rid our planet of these toxins.
Kristin A. Wintersteen
THE FISHMEAL REVOLUTION: The Industrialization of the Humboldt Current Ecosystem
University of California Press, 2021
One of the world’s most productive marine ecosystems lies off the Pacific coast of South America. The region’s teeming populations of fish are made into animal feed. fueling mass production of chickens, hog, and farmed fish in the United States and Europe. Wintersteen’s far ranging analysis exposes the devastating environmental impacts of the relentless drive to maximize profits from the sea.
Rupa Marya & Raj Patel
INFLAMED: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021
Our bodies, societies, and planet are inflamed. Marya and Patel take a medical tour through the human body—our digestive, endocrine, circulatory, respiratory, reproductive, immune, and nervous systems. Unlike a traditional anatomy book, this groundbreaking work illuminates the hidden relationships between our biological systems and the profound injustices of our political and economic systems.
Michael Heinrich
HOW TO READ MARX’S CAPITAL: Commentary and Explanations on the Beginning Chapters
Monthly Review Press, 2021
An accessible companion to the difficult opening chapters of Karl Marx’s masterpiece. Paragraph by paragraph, Heinrich provides extensive commentary and lucid explanations of questions and quandaries that arise when encountering Marx’s original text. With multiple appendices referring to other pertinent writings by Marx, Heinrich’s book is an illuminating and indispensable guide.
J.P. Sapinski, Holly Jean Buck, & Andreas Malm., editors
HAS IT COME TO THIS? The Promises and Perils of Geoengineering on the Brink
Rutgers University Press, 2021
Is deliberate, large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system inevitable? Why does the most extreme path now seems a plausible development? What options do we have? Who does geoengineering serve? The contributors to this volume examine perspectives ranging from sociology and geography to ethics and Indigenous studies.
Stephanie Seneff
TOXIC LEGACY: How the Weedkiller Glyphosphate is Destroying Our Health and the Environment
Chelsea Green Publishing, 2021
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the most commonly used weedkiller in the world. Agrochemical companies claim it is safe, but emerging scientific research tells a very different story. A senior research scientist presents evidence from countless published, peer-reviewed studies, in frank, illuminating, and accessible language.