George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) stated that his book, Man and Nature, was “a little volume showing the whereas [Carl] Ritter and [Arnold] Guyot think that the earth made man, man in fact made earth” (as cited in Lowenthal, 2000, p. 267). With this position, Marsh inverted a dominant theoretical transformation— both destruction and revitalization— of […]
Author Archive | John Bellamy Foster
Environmental Sociology and the Environmental Revolution: A 25th Anniversary Assessment
By John Bellamy Foster on March 1, 2002 in Articles, Comments-Short Articles-Introductions to Archival Reprints
It is a great honor to be asked to respond to articles by individuals who can all be rightly considered to be founders of environmental sociology, legendary figures in the field. If I have something distinctive to add to this symposium, it mostly arises out of my own standpoint as a respresentative of what I […]
Paul Sweezy and Monopoly Capitalism
”Paul Sweezy and Monopoly Capitalism,” in Doug Dowd, ed., Understanding Capitalism: Critical Analysis from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen (London: Pluto Press, 2002), pp. 132-50. Translations: Spanish translation in Doug Dowd, ed., Entender el capitalismo Hacienda, 2006.
The Ecological Tyranny of the Bottom Line
In recent decades environmentalists have directed a persistent ecological critique at economics, contending that economics has failed to value the natural world. Lately economists have begun to respond to this critique, and a rapidly growing sub discipline of environmental economics has emerged that is dedicated to placing economic values on nature and integrating the environment […]
Marx’s Theory of Metabolic Rift
This article addresses a paradox: on the one hand, environmental sociology, as currently developed, is closely associated with the thesis that the classical sociological tradition is devoid of systematic insights into environmental problems; on the other hand, evidence of crucial classical contributions in this area, particularly in Marx, but also in Weber, Durkheim, and others, […]
Erde (Earth)
”Erde (Earth),” in Historisch-Kritisches Wörterbuch Des Marximus, Band 3 (Ebene-Extremisis) (Berlin: Argument-Verlag, 1997), pp. 669-710. [HTML] Reprints English language version published in Historical Materialism, no. 15, 2007, pp. 255-62.
Paul Marlor Sweezy 1910-
“Paul Marlor Sweezy 1910–” in Biographical Dictionary of Dissenting Economists, edited by Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer (Brookfield, Vermont: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1992, pp. 562-70. [PDF] Editions Revised and expanded for 2000 edition.
The Tendency of the Surplus to Rise, 1963–1988
In the increasingly universal monopoly-capitalist economy and culture of the late twentieth century, people no longer need what they want or want what they need. Wants are artificially manufactured while the most desperate needs of innumerable individuals remain unfulfilled. Although labor productivity has steadily risen, the overall efficiency and rationality of society has in many […]
Liberal Practicality and the U.S. Left
“Liberal Practicality and the U.S. Left,” in Ralph Miliband, Leo Panitch and John Saville, ed., Socialist Register, 1990: The Retreat of the Intellectuals. (London: Merlin Press, 1990), pp. 265-89.
The Age of Restructuring
“The Age of Restructuring,” in Arthur MacEwan and William K. Tabb, ed. Instability and Change in the International Economy (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1989), pp. 281-97.
