Bøker av John Bellamy Foster

Explores ecological socialism's potential against capitalist environmental degradation Today the fate of the earth as a home for humanity is in question--and yet, contends John Bellamy Foster, the reunification of humanity and the earth remains possible if we are prepared to make revolutionary changes. As with his prior books, The Dialectics of Ecology is grounded in the contention that we are now faced with a concrete choice between ecological socialism and capitalist exterminism, and rooted in insights drawn from the classical historical materialist tradition. In this latest work, Foster explores the complex theoretical debates that have arisen historically with respect to the dialectics of nature and society. He then goes on to examine the current contradictions associated with the confrontation between capitalist extractivism and the financialization of nature, on the one hand, and the radical challenges to these represented by emergent visions of ecological civilization and planned degrowth, on the other. The product of contemporary ecosocialist debates, The Dialectics of Ecology builds on earlier works by Foster, including Marx's Ecology and The Return of Nature, aimed at the development of a dialectical naturalism and the formation of a path to sustainable human development.

"With a foreword by Robert W. McChesney"--Cover.

In 1966, Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy published Monopoly Capital,a monumental work of economic theory and social criticismthat sought to reveal the basic nature of the capitalism of theirtime. Their theory, and its continuing elaboration by Sweezy, HarryMagdoff, and others in Monthly Review magazine, infl uenced generationsof radical and heterodox economists. They recognizedthat Marx's work was unfi nished and itself historically conditioned,and that any attempt to understand capitalism as an evolvingphenomenon needed to take changing conditions into account.Having observed the rise of giant monopolistic (or oligopolistic)fi rms in the twentieth century, they put monopoly capital at thecenter of their analysis, arguing that the rising surplus such fi rmsaccumulated—as a result of their pricing power, massive salesefforts, and other factors—could not be profi tably invested backinto the economy. Absent any "epoch making innovations” like theautomobile or vast new increases in military spending, the resultwas a general trend toward economic stagnation—a condition thatpersists, and is increasingly apparent, to this day. Their analysiswas also extended to issues of imperialism, or "accumulation ona world scale,” overlapping with the path-breaking work of SamirAmin in particular.John Bellamy Foster is a leading exponent of this theoretical perspectivetoday, continuing in the tradition of Baran and Sweezy'sMonopoly Capital. This new edition of his essential work, TheTheory of Monopoly Capitalism, is a clear and accessible explicationof this outlook, brought up to the present, and incorporatingan analysis of recently discovered "lost” chapters from MonopolyCapital and correspondence between Baran and Sweezy. It alsodiscusses Magdoff and Sweezy's analysis of the fi nancializationof the economy in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, leading up to theGreat Financial Crisis of the opening decade of this century. Fosterpresents and develops the main arguments of monopoly capitaltheory, examining its key exponents, and addressing its critics in away that is thoughtful but rigorous, suspicious of dogma but adamantthat the deep-seated problems of today's monopoly-fi nancecapitalism can only truly be solved in the process of overcomingthe system itself.

Humanity in the twenty-first century is facing what might be described as its ultimate environmental catastrophe: the destruction of the climate that has nurtured human civilization and with it the basis of life on earth as we know it. All ecosystems on the planet are now in decline. Enormous rifts have been driven through the delicate fabric of the biosphere. The economy and the earth are headed for a fateful collision—if we don't alter course.In The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on the Earth environmental sociologists John Bellamy Foster, Brett Clark, and Richard York offer a radical assessment of both the problem and the solution. They argue that the source of our ecological crisis lies in the paradox of wealth in capitalist society, which expands individual riches at the expense of public wealth, including the wealth of nature. In the process, a huge ecological rift is driven between human beings and nature, undermining the conditions of sustainable existence: a rift in the metabolic relation between humanity and nature that is irreparable within capitalist society, since integral to its very laws of motion.Critically examining the sanguine arguments of mainstream economists and technologists, Foster, Clark, and York insist instead that fundamental changes in social relations must occur if the ecological (and social) problems presently facing us are to be transcended. Their analysis relies on the development of a deep dialectical naturalism concerned with issues of ecology and evolution and their interaction with the economy. Importantly, they offer reasons for revolutionary hope in moving beyond the regime of capital and toward a society of sustainable human development.

Since the atomic bomb made its first appearance on the world stage in 1945, it has been clear that we possess the power to destroy our own planet. What nuclear weapons made possible, global environmental crisis, marked especially by global warming, has now made inevitable-if business as usual continues.The roots of the present ecological crisis, John Bellamy Foster argues in The Ecological Revolution, lie in capital's rapacious expansion, which has now achieved unprecedented heights of irrationality across the globe. Foster compellingly demonstrates that the only possible answer for humanity is an ecological revolution: a struggle to make peace with the planet. Foster details the beginnings of such a revolution in human relations with the environment which can now be found throughout the globe, especially in the periphery of the world system, where the most ambitious experiments are taking place.This bold new work addresses the central issues of the present crisis: global warming, peak oil, species extinction, world water shortages, global hunger, alternative energy sources, sustainable development, and environmental justice. Foster draws on a unique range of thinkers, including Karl Marx, Thomas Malthus, William Morris, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Rachel Carson, Vandana Shiva, and István Mészáros. The result is a startlingly radical synthesis, which offers new hope for grappling with the greatest challenge of our age: what must be done to save the earth for humanity and all living species.

This work challenges the spiritualism prevalent in the modern Green movement, pointing toward a method that offers more lasting sustainable solutions to the ecological crisis. Marx's writings on agriculture, soil ecology, philosophical naturalism and evolutionary theory are outlined.