“Paul M. Sweezy (1910-2004),” Routledge Handbook of Marxism and Post Marxism, ed. Alex Callincos, Stathis Kouvelakis, and Lucia Pradella, ed. (London: Routledge, 2020), 503-510. [Revised ,expanded, and updated version of previous dictionary/encyclopedia articles on Sweezy and his influence.] Paul Marlor Sweezy (1910–2004) was one of the most accomplished economists to come out of Harvard in […]
Archive | Book Chapters
Metabolic Rifts and the Ecological Crisis
“Metabolic Rifts and the Ecological Crisis” (coauthored with Brett Clark and Stefano B. Longo, Clark listed first), The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 651-58, DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190695545.001.0001. [PDF] The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx provides an entry point for those new to Marxism. At the same time, its chapters, written by […]
Marx’s Universal Metabolism of Nature and the Frankfurt School: Dialectical Contradictions and Critical Syntheses
The Frankfurt School, as represented especially by Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s 1944, Dialectic of Enlightenment, was noted for developing a philosophical critique of the domination of nature. Critical theorists associated with the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt were heavily influenced by the writings of the early Karl Marx. Yet, their critique of the Enlightenment […]
Ecology
“Ecology,” in Marcello Musto, ed., The Marx Revival (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), pp. 20.
Polish Marxian Political Economy and U.S. Monopoly Capital Theory: The Influence of Luxemburg, Kalecki, and Lange on Baran and Sweezy and Monthly Review
From the viewpoint of orthodox economists, macroeconomics has no significant historical antecedents prior to the publication of Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money in 1936. Theories of aggregate demand before Keynes, such as those associated with Lauderdale, Malthus, and Hobson, were generally weak theoretically. A number of important mainstream economic thinkers raised what […]
Metabolism, Energy and Entropy in Marx’s Critique of Political Economy
Until recently, most commentators, including ecological Marxists, have assumed that Marx’s historical materialism was only marginally ecologically sensitive at best, or even that it was explicitly anti-ecological. However, research over the last decade has demonstrated not only that Marx deemed ecological materialism essential to the critique of political economy and to investigations into socialism, but […]
Guano
“Guano: The Global Metabolic Rift and the Fertilizer Trade” (coauthored with Brett Clark, Clark listed first), in Alf Hornborg, Brett Clark, and Kenneth Hermele, ed., Ecology and Power (London: Routledge, 2012), 68-82. Power and social inequality shape patterns of land use and resource management. This book explores this relationship from different perspectives, illuminating the complexity of […]
Advertising and the Genius of Commercial Propaganda
“Advertising and the Genius of Commercial Propaganda” (coauthored with Robert W. McChesney, Inger L. Stole, and Hannah Holleman, Foster listed third), in Gerald Sussman, ed., The Propaganda Society: Promotional Culture and Politics in Global Context (New York: Peter Lang, 2011), 27-44.
Marx’s Ecology and its Historical Significance
For the early Marx the only nature relevant to the understanding of history is human nature….. Marx wisely left nature (other than human nature) alone.
The Financialization of the Capitalist Class
“The Financialization of the Capitalist Class: Monopoly-Finance Capital and the New Contradictory Relations of Ruling Class Power,” in Henry Veltmeyer, ed., Imperialism, Crisis and Class Struggle: The Enduring Verities and Contemporary Face of Capitalism—Essays in Honour of James Petras (London: Brill, 2010), pp. 163-73.