John Bellamy Foster

Tag: Socialism

  • Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?”: The Enduring Legacy of His Classic Essay

    Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?”: The Enduring Legacy of His Classic Essay

    Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?”: The Enduring Legacy of His Classic Essay

    Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism”: The Enduring Relevance of His Classic Essay, edited and introduced by John Bellamy Foster (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2025).

    First published more than seventy-five years ago in the inaugural issue of Monthly Review: An Independent Socialism Magazine, Albert Einstein’s “Why Socialism?” is an unheralded classic. Written during the McCarthyite witch-hunt in the United States, it constituted an act of defiance, making a case for socialism unrivaled in its time or ours. Yet, its very existence has been an embarrassment to an establishment which has continually sought to downplay the significance of his iconoclastic essay, together with Einstein’s socialism itself.

    This slim, elegant volume includes Einstein’s essay along with a detailed commentary on his essay by Monthly Review editor, John Bellamy Foster. Foster’s introduction tells the story of Einstein’s life-long commitment to socialism and the events leading to the publication of “Why Socialism?” and contextualizes the importance of his essay as we enter a time of planetary crisis and new threats of world war. Over the three-quarters of century since its publication, “Why Socialism?” is one of those rare statements whose power has only grown, reaching untold numbers of readers over the years. It is of crucial importance that—for the sake of the future of humanity—Einstein’s message continues to proliferate.

    Albert Einstein was the world-famous theoretical physicist.

    John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review.

  • Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution

    Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution

    Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological RevolutionCapitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution (New York: Monthly Review Press, forthcoming 2022), 693 pp.

    Over the last 11,700 years, during which human civilization developed, the earth has existed within what geologists refer to as the Holocene Epoch. Now science is telling us that the Holocene Epoch in the geological time scale ended, replaced by the onset of a new, more dangerous Anthropocene Epoch, which began around 1950. The Anthropocene Epoch is characterized by an “anthropogenic rift” in the biological cycles of the Earth System, marking a changed reality in which human activities are now the main geological force impacting the earth as a whole, generating at the same time an existential crisis for the world’s population.

    What caused this massive shift in the history of the earth? In this comprehensive study, John Bellamy Foster tells us that a globalized system of capital accumulation has induced humanity to foul its own nest. The result is a planetary emergency that threatens all present and future generations, throwing into question the continuation of civilization and ultimately the very survival of humanity itself. Only by addressing the social aspects of the current planetary emergency, exploring the theoretical, historical, and practical dimensions of the capitalism’s alteration of the planetary environment, is it possible to develop the ecological and social resources for a new journey of hope.

    What people are saying about Capitalism in the Anthropocene

    John Bellamy Foster has returned Socialism to a serious and sincere engagement with nature. He is as adept at navigating the latest scientific literature as he is comfortable with the immense body of Marxist theory. JBF is a key reference for the elaboration of our political struggles and for the expansion of our political imagination.

    ―Vijay Prashad, Director, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research

  • Is Democratic Socialism the American Dream?

    “Is Democratic Socialism the American Dream?” (John Bellamy Foster), The Washington Post (2016)

    National income can be likened to a pie. If between one year and the next the pie gets bigger, everyone can have a bigger slice. But if, instead, the size of the pie stays the same, a bigger slice for some can only mean a smaller slice for others.

    This helps us understand the present dismal state of the U.S. economy and the impetus behind Bernie Sanders’s electoral campaign, which is aimed at the needs of workers and working families. For decades, U.S. economic growth has stagnated, with each succeeding decade experiencing a lower rate of growth. Under these circumstances, the rapidly increasing income of those at the top — or what Sanders likes to call the “billionaire class” — is at the expense of the income shares (slices of the pie) of those at the bottom.