editor and author of Ian Angus takes a look at six new books on Marx鈥檚 ecosocialist views, climate change and health, theory and action, inevitability versus contingency in evolution, new politics and the meaning of Marx鈥檚 Capital.
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By Kohei Saito
Monthly Review Press, 2017
Delving into Karl Marx鈥檚 central works, as well as his natural scientific notebooks 鈥 published only recently and still being translated 鈥 Saito builds on the works of scholars such as John Bellamy Foster and Paul Burkett to argue that Karl Marx actually saw the environmental crisis embedded in capitalism.
鈥淚t is not possible to comprehend the full scope of [Marx鈥檚] critique of political economy,鈥 Saito writes, 鈥渋f one ignores its ecological dimension.鈥
By Jay Lemery & Paul Auerbach
Rowman & Littlefield, 2017
The impact climate change will have on human health is tremendous and we are only just now discovering what the long-term outcomes may be.
Weighing in from a physician鈥檚 perspective, Lemery and Auerbach clarify the science, dispel the myths and explain the tremendous threats that climate change poses for human health.
By David Camfield
Fernwood Publishing, 2017
David Camfield proposes a reconstructed historical materialism that fuses critical Marxism with insights from anti-racist queer feminism, and treats capitalism and class as inextricably interwoven with gender, race and sexuality.
Arguing that the key to achieving change for the better is social struggle, he offers ideas about moving from social theory to social action.
By Jonathan B. Losos
Riverhead/Penguin Random House, 2017
Are today鈥檚 plants and animals inevitabilities or evolutionary flukes? Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science.
In doing so he offers insights into natural selection and evolutionary change that have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria.
By George Monbiot
Verso, 2017
George Monbiot argues that new findings in psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology cast human nature in a radically different light: as the supreme altruists and cooperators.
He shows how we can build on these findings to create what he calls a 鈥減olitics of belonging鈥 that would enable us to take back control and overthrow the forces that have thwarted our ambitions for a better society.
By David Harvey
Profile Books, 2017
Karl Marx鈥檚 Capital is one of the most important texts of the modern era. David Harvey lays out its key arguments, placing his observations in the context of capitalism in the second half of the 19th century.
He considers the degree to which technological, economic and industrial change during the past 150 years means Marx鈥檚 analysis and its application may need to be modified.