Product Description

We live in and from nature, but the way we are doing this is about to destroy us. Capitalism and its by-products - imperialism, war, neoliberal globalization, racism, poverty and the destruction of community - are all playing a part in the destruction of our ecosystem. Only now are we beginning to realise the depth of the crisis and the kind of transformation which will have to occur to ensure our survival. This second, thoroughly updated, edition of The Enemy of Nature speaks to this new environmental awareness. Joel Kovel argues against claims that we can achieve a better environment through the current Western 'way of being'. By suggesting a radical new way forward, an integration of 'red' and 'green' politics, Joel Kovel offers real hope and vision for a more sustainable future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #267942 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 354 pages

Review
'A terrific read...this book is "vital" in the most profound meaning of that word.' - Review of Radical Political Economics 'Full of insights into the relationship between ecological degradation and capitalist expansion, this is a must-read for thinkers and activists'. - Walden Bello 'The Enemy of Nature' is a challenging book, written with passion and eloquence. Its forcefully stressed core message is that 'capital cannot be reformed: it either rules and destroys us, or is destroyed, so that we may have a lease on life'. The underlying causes and their far-reaching implications are systematically explored, rich in detail and insights, leading to much needed radical conclusions. The book should be read by all those who are concerned about the survival of the human species. - Istvan Meszaros, author of 'Marx's Theory of Alienation' and 'Beyond Capital' 'Joel Kovel has brought us a persuasive, passionate and hopeful ecosocialist manifesto. He shows how problems from toxic pollution to globalized poverty reflect the inner logic of capitalism, and extends the lessons of Marxism and other radical traditions to illuminate a path toward an ethical and ecological revolution. This book offers much food for thought to all who seek a systemic understanding of today's social and ecological crises.' - Brian Tokar, activist and author of 'Redesigning Life?', 'Earth for Sale' 'A necessary and timely book. Necessary because it openly declares capitalism as THE destroyer of the earth and all eco-systems. Timely, because it appears at a moment when more and more people are beginning to lose faith in capital's ability to solve the social and ecological crises. The book is a must for all those who are active in the international movement against corporate-driven globalization and who look for a perspective beyond capital's enslavement of nature and people.' - Maria Mies, author and activist 'The Enemy of Nature exposes better than any other single work the extent and depth of capitalism's global ecological destruction. This master work by Joel Kovel then pursues the necessary implications -- including the opportunity and need to imagine an ecological socialist society. Kovel shows that the core conditions of such a society are the accession of quality over quantity and use-value over exchange-value, with the emancipatory possibilities these imply.' - James O'Connor, author of 'Natural Causes: Essays in Ecological Marxism' 'Full of insights into the relationship between ecological degradation and capitalist expansion, this is a must read for thinkers and activists.' - Walden Bello, Executive Director, Focus on the Global South, Thailand Joel Kovel has written a highly original and theoretically elegant argument that ecological crisis and capitalist exploitation of labour must be understood as two aspects of the same problem, and therefore remedies for ecological destruction require the destruction of capitalism. In the process, he puts forward an account of the ways the gendered separation of man from nature (woman) lies at the root of a masculinist capitalism. The abolition of patriarchy, then, becomes central to the ecosocialist project. In addition to this impressive reworking of Marxist theory, he offers a visionary program of practical political action' - Nancy Hartsock, Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington

About the Author
Joel Kovel is Distinguished Professor of Social Studies at Bard College. He has written ten books and edits the journal of radical ecology, Capitalism Nature Socialism, since 2003 and has been active in Green politics, running for the US Senate in 1998, and seeking the party's presidential nomination in 2000.

Customer Reviews

Penetrating indictment of capitalism
After having read and greatly appreciated Professor Kovel's previous book, "Red Hunting in the Promised Land", I was somewhat surprised to see his entry into the ecological debate with "Enemy of Nature." But scepticism soon gave way to great insight about the fundamentals of our current ecological situation, an impending catastrophe threatening survival itself as Kovel makes clear.
Whereas other writers have examined ecological crises and misdeeds as isolated and independent manifestations of similarly discrete abuses by global and regional players, Kovel shows that the root cause of ecological ills is the capitalistic system itself, in effect the very nature of capital or "money-in-motion." What follows from this accusation is the even more unsettling demonstration that no amount of "corrections" of given abuses nor mere simple changes and "controls" applied to the basic rules of the game will suffice to reverse the dangerous nature- and life-threatening trends now evident world-wide. The Enemy of Nature is the capitalistic system itself, and if readers of such a statement should be tempted to dismiss the claim as mere Marxian doomsday-saying and thus forego a reading of it on the basis of our current celebrations that capitalism is the sole surviving economic system and therefore MUST be the best, such potential readers will be ignoring not only essential information, but be contributing to the continuation of processes which must surely end in chaos and anarchy.
For anyone who even pretends to have a passing interest in the future of Western civilisation and the questions concerning its health and survival now discussed with every passing ecological abuse and catastrophe, this book is a must. Ignoring it may well constitute a breach of morality. However, there is a great probability that the book may well be ignored because its arguments and conclusions are fairly well unanswerable and would require outright revolution in all spheres of human activity were it to be taken seriously. As such, it is hard to conclude anything else but that we are indeed approaching global meltdown and the end of history, not for the reasons that Francis Fukuyama laid out in his famous tome, but because the Panglossian continuation of our current ecological mania must soon end not only history but the means even to write it, and possibly even the species which writes.