Editor of Climate and Capitalism Ian Angus takes a look at five new books of interest to ecosocalists.
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Monthly Review, July/August 2018
Special double issue on metabolic rifts
A special double issue of renowned US-based Marxist journal Monthly Review features articles by John Bellamy Foster, Hannah Holleman, Ian Angus, Michael Friedman, Brett Clark, Stefano Longo, and Justus von Liebig. Each uses the metabolic rift perspective to uncover core contradictions of capitalism. This is a major contribution to ecosocialist thought and movement building. Highly recommended.
The James Connolly Reader
Shaun Harkin, editor
Haymarket Books, 2018
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ireland’s most important revolutionary leader, James Connolly. Connolly’s views on national liberation and socialism, revolution in colonised and under developed economies, and women’s liberation were decades ahead of their time.
This collection makes his most important speeches and writing available to a new generation of fighters for a world free from militarism, injustice and deprivation.
A Nation Unmade By War
Tom Engelhardt
Haymarket Books, 2018
Despite having a larger, more technologically advanced and better-funded military than any other power on the planet, in the past decade-and-a-half of constant war, the United States has won nothing, and the world is growing more chaotic by the second. The US was made by wars: will it be unmade by them?
Formerly Known As Food: How the Industrial Food System is Changing Our Minds, Bodies & Culture
Kristin Lawless
St Martin’s Press, 2018
Because of the degradation of our diet, our bodies are literally changing from the inside out. The billion-dollar food industry is reshaping our food preferences, altering our brains, changing the composition of our microbiota, and even affecting the expression of our genes.
Lawless chronicles how this is happening and what it means for our bodies, health, and survival.
Nourished Planet: Sustainability in the Global Food System
Danielle Nierenberg, editor
Island Press, 2018
The current food system is undermining both human and environmental health. Drawing on the diverse experiences of renowned international experts, Nourished Planet offers a planetary map towards food for all, food for sustainable growth, food for health, and food for culture.