Monthly Review Press Catalog, 2011
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PAID PAID Social Structure RIPON, WI and Forms of NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE U.S. POSTAGE Consciousness ORGANIZATION ORGANIZATION PERMIT NO. 100 volume ii The Dialectic of Structure and History István Mészáros Class Dismissed WHY WE CANNOT TEACH OR LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF INEQUALITY John Marsh JOSÉ CARLOS MARIÁTEGUI an anthology MONTHLY REVIEW PRESS Harry E. Vanden and Marc Becker editors and translators the story of the center for constitutional rights How Venezuela and Cuba are Changing the World’s Conception of Health Care the people’s RevolutionaRy lawyer DOCTORS 2011 Albert Ruben Steve Brouwer WHAT EVERY ENVIRONMENTALIST NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT CAPITALISM JOHN BELLAMY FOSTER FRED MAGDOFF monthly review press review monthly #6W 29th Street, 146 West NY 10001 New York, www.monthlyreview.org 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 1/4/2011 3:49 PM Page 1 THE DEVIL’S MILK A Social History of Rubber JOHN TULLY From the early stages of primitivehistory accu- mulation“ to the heights of the industrial revolution and beyond, rubber is one of a handful of commodities that has played a crucial role in shaping the modern world, and yet, as John Tully shows in this remarkable book, laboring people around the globe have every reason to THE DEVIL’S MILK regard it as “the devil’s milk.” All the A S O C I A L H I S T O R Y O F R U B B E R advancements made possible by rubber have occurred against a backdrop of seemingly endless exploitation, con- quest, slavery, and war. This book, the product of exhaustive scholarship carried out in many coun- tries and several continents, is destined to become a classic. Tully tells the story of humanity’s long encounter with rub- JOHN TULLY ber in a kaleidoscopic narrative that regards little as outside its range without losing sight of the commodity in ques- AVAILABLE NOW tion. With the skill of a master historian $24.95 / £17.95 / $26.95CAN / PAPER and the elegance of a novelist, he pres- 978-1-58367-231-0 ents what amounts to a history of the $87.00 / £60.00 / $90.00CAN / CLOTH modern world told through the multiple 978-1-58367-232-7 480 pages / History lives of rubber. “A wonderfully fascinating social history of rubber’s terrors (including slavery and Nazi extermination camps) and pleasures (con- doms, among others). Tully is an insightful historian and he narrates this centuries-long account of a commodity as essential to the JOHN TULLY is lecturer in politics modern world as oil or steel with great pas- and history at Victoria University in sion and compassion.” Melbourne Australia. He is author of —GreG GrANdiN, author, Fordlandia: three books of non-fiction including The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten A Short History of Cambodia: From Jungle City Empire to Survival, and two novels, Dark Clouds on the Mountain and Death Is the Cool Night. WWW.MONTHLYREVIEW.ORG 1 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 12/10/2010 12:09 PM Page 2 THE INVISIBLE HANDCUFFS OF CAPITALISM How Market Tyranny Stifles the Economy by Stunting Workers MICHAEL PERELMAN ECONOMICS Mainstream, or more formally, neoclassi- “ cal, economics claims to be a science. But as Michael Perelman makes clear, nothing could be further from the truth. While a science must be rooted in mate- rial reality, mainstream economics ignores or distorts the most fundamental aspect of this reality: that the vast major- ity of people must labor on behalf of oth- ers, transformed into nothing but a means to the end of maximum profits for THE INVISIBLE their employers. Perelman describes this illusion as the HANDCUFFS “invisible handcuffs” of capitalism and OF CAPITALISM HOW MARKET TYRANNY STIFLES traces its roots back to Adam Smith and MY BY STUNTING WORKERS THE ECONO his contemporaries. He argues that far MICHAEL PERELMAN from being a basically fair system of exchanges regulated by the “invisible hand” of the market, capitalism hand- cuffs working men and women (and chil- AVAILABLE NOW dren too) through the very labor process $19.95 / £14.95 / $21.95CAN / PAPER itself. What we need to do instead, 978-1-58367-229-7 Perelman suggests, is eliminate the hand- $75.00 / £50.00 / $80.00CAN/ CLOTH cuffs through collective actions and 978-1-58367-230-3 build a society that we direct ourselves. 360 pages / Economics “Shows how the market, instead of serving humanity, is now a Procrustean monster, demanding imperiously that humanity fit to its own constraints. The market gives power to the destructive practices of busi- ness and finance while stifling the creative potential of labor to address urgent social needs. a tonic read in these times of economic disarray!” MICHAEL PERELMAN is professor of —PAUL AdLer, chair in business policy, economics at California State University department of management & organiza- at Chico, and the author of numerous tion, Marshall School of Business, books, including Steal This Idea and University of Southern California Railroading Economics. 2 1.800.670.9499 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 12/10/2010 12:09 PM Page 3 AGRICULTURE AND FOOD IN CRISIS Conflict, Resistance, and Renewal Edited by FRED MAGDOFF and BRIAN TOKAR The failures of “free-market” capitalism are perhaps nowhere more evident than in the production and distribution of food. Although modern human societies have attained unprecedented levels of wealth, a significant amount of the AGRICULTURE world’s population continues to suffer from hunger or food insecurity. In this AND FOOD exceptional collection, scholars from IN CRISIS around the world explore this frighten- conflict, resistance, and renewal ing long-term trend in food production. While approaching the issue from many angles, they share a focus on investigating fred magdoff and brian tokar how agricultural production is shaped by a system that is oriented toward the cre- ation of profit above all else, with food as nothing but an afterthought. They also examine what can be, and is being, done to create a human-centered and ecologically sound system of food production, from sustainable agriculture AVAILABLE NOW and organic farming on a large scale to $18.95 / £14.95 / $19.95CAN / PAPER movements for radical land reform and 978-1-58367-226-6 national food sovereignty. An indispensa- $75.00 / £50.00 / $80.00CAN / CLOTH ble guide to the coming era in which 352 pages / Environment & Science / world politics will no doubt come to be Sociology increasingly understood as food politics. “A healthy and inspiring antidote to the ‘busi- FRED MAGDOFF is professor ness as usual’ propaganda of the mass emeritus at the University of Vermont media. As this book reminds us, if we want and adjunct professor at Cornell to survive and eat and live in a sustainable University. He has written extensively world, we’re going to have to mobilize and on soil fertility, ecological approaches fight the powers that be.” to agriculture, and political economy. —roNNie CUMMiNS, founder and inter- national director, organic Consumers Assn. BRIAN TOKAR is a long-time activist and author, and current director of the Institute for Social Ecology based in Plainfield, Vermont. WWW.MONTHLYREVIEW.ORG 3 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 12/10/2010 12:09 PM Page 4 MEXICO’S REVOLUTION THEN AND NOW JAMES D. COCKCROFT Written to commemorate the one hun- dredth anniversary of the first predomi- nantly anti-capitalist revolution in the world, Mexico’s Revolution: Then and Now is the perfect introductory text and one that will also sharpen the under- standing of seasoned observers. Cockcroft provides readers with the his- torical context within which the revolu- tion occurred; tells us how the ideals of the revolution live on in the minds of Mexico’s peasants and workers; and crit- ically examines the contours of modern Mexican society, including its ethnic and gender dimensions. Mexico’s Revolution also explores the possibility of Mexico’s revolutionary his- tory finally bearing the fruit long hoped for by the country’s disenfranchised—a prospect kept alive by the unyielding AVAILABLE NOW struggle of the last one hundred years. $14.95 / £11.95 / $16.95CAN / PAPER 978-1-58367-224-29 $65.00 / £45.00 / $70.00CAN / CLOTH “Provides a context for understanding the 978-1-58367-225-9 anti-imperialist resistance of the Mexican 176 pages / History / Latin America people and the current capitalist crisis that is and the Caribbean creating economic refugees of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans. A passionate, beau- tifully written work that clarifies, informs, and calls for action.” —roxANNe dUNBAr-orTiz JAMES D. COCKCROFT is a bilingual award-winning author of forty-five “An unrivalled classic on the socio-political and books on Latin America, Mexico, ideological roots of what is happening today, Latin@s, culture, migration, and human the Centenary of the revolution in Mexico. rights. He is Internet professor for the Moreover, it’s a literary piece most satisfying State University of New York, a poet, to read.” —dr. JACiNTo BArreA BASSoLS, three-time Fulbright Scholar, and an director of historical studies, National activist with la Base de Paix Montréal, institute of Anthropology and History, among many other organizations. Mexico 4 1.800.670.9499 2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 12/10/2010 12:09 PM Page 5 DEBT, THE IMF, AND THE WORLD BANK Sixty Questions, Sixty Answers ÉRIC TOUSSAINT and DAMIEN MILLET Mainstream economists tell us that devel- oping countries will replicate the eco- nomic achievements of the rich countries if they implement the correct “free-mar- ket” policies. But scholars and activists Toussaint and Millet demonstrate that this is patently false. Drawing on a wealth of detailed evidence, they explain how developed economies have systematically and deliberately exploited the less-devel- oped economies by forcing them into unequal trade and political relationships.