The German Peasants’ War, Air, Amazonian struggles, Climate history, Class rule, and Marx’s late views
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!) it says. Climate & Capitalism has received review copies of some of these books, but we do not receive any payment for reviews or for reader purchases.
Martin Empson
THE TIME OF THE HARVEST HAS COME!
Revolution, Reformation and the German Peasants’ War
Bookmarks Publications
“We will not hereafter allow ourselves to be further oppressed by our lords!” In 1525 peasants across central Europe rose up, demanding religious reform, justice, and an end to feudalism. Tens of thousands fought and died for their cause, in one of the largest—and unjustly neglected—rebellions in European history. Martin Empson’s powerful new history brings that revolt to life, showing who took part, what they fought for, and why they were ultimately defeated. An essential addition to every rebel’s bookshelf.
Carl Zimmer
AIR-BORNE
The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe
Dutton / Penguin Random House
Unveiling the hidden world of air, Zimmer examines a frontier so little known then it took scientists over 2 years to agree that COVID was caused by an airborne virus. It’s a place where the oceans and forests loft trillions of cells into the air, where microbes eat clouds, and where life soars thousands of miles on the wind. And it’s a potential battlefield, where the great powers are prepared to unleash biological weapons. Informative and frightening.
Casey High
TRANSLATING WORLDS, DEFENDING LAND
Collaborations for Indigenous Rights and Environmental Politics in Amazonia
Stanford University Press
In 2019, after decades of ecological damage from oil, Waorani people took to the streets to protest drilling on their ancestral lands in Amazonia. Working with international activists, lawyers, and other Indigenous groups, they successfully sued the government for selling oil concessions without prior consent. Casey High interrogates what these engagements mean for Indigenous communities and how they offer critical reflection on collaboration as a concept, method, and practice
David Prothero
THE STORY OF EARTH’S CLIMATE IN 25 DISCOVERIES
How Scientists Found the Connections Between Climate and Life
Columbia University Press
Why do we have phytoplankton to thank for the air we breathe? What kind of climate was necessary for the rise of the dinosaurs? When and how have climatic changes caused mass extinctions? Prothero explores the connections between climate and life through the ages, and shows what they teach us about the nature dangers of modern climate change.
David N. Gibbs
REVOLT OF THE RICH
How the Politics of the 1970s Widened America’s Class Divide
Columbia University Press
Inequality in the United States has reached staggering proportions, with a massive share of wealth held by the very richest. Gibbs explores the forces that have increased wealth concentration and finds their roots in the 1970s, when academics and intellectuals sold laissez-faire to policy makers and the public, justifying policies that deregulated industry, cut social spending, and weakened organized labor, while expanding military actions overseas.
THE LATE MARX’S REVOLUTIONARY ROADS
Colonialism, Gender, and Indigenous Communism
Verso Books
Continuing the arguments he set out in Marx at the Margins, Anderson argues that in his late writings Karl Marx’s views changed radically. In Marx’s notebooks he finds what he describes as “new concepts of revolution” that contradict the linear and eurocentric historical views that have been attributed to him.