2011 MRP catalog:TMOI.qxd 1/4/2011 3:49 PM Page 1 THE DEVIL’S MILK A Social History of Rubber JOHN TULLY F rom th e e arly stages of primitihistoryve accu - m“ u lation to th e h eigh t s of the indu strial re volu tio n and bey on d , ru bb er is o ne of a ha ndfu l of com mod ities that has p layed a cru cia l role in shaping the modern w orld, and yet, as John Tully sh ow s in th is re mar ka ble boo k, lab oring p eople around the globe have every reason to E H T DEVIL’S MILK re g ar d it a s “ th e d evi l’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 ad va n c eme nts m ad e possible by rubber h ave o c cu rr ed a g ain s t a backdrop of se em ing ly e ndl ess exp loi ta t io n , con - q ue s t, sla v er y, a nd w ar . T h is bo ok, t he p ro d u ct of ex h au stive sc h ola rsh ip c arri e d o u t in m a ny c oun - tr ies and se ve r a l c on t inen ts , is des tined to b e co m e a cl assi c. T u l ly tells the story o f h u m anity’s long encounter with rub - JOHN TULLY b er i n 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 SIBLE HE INVI means to the end of maximum profits for T their employers. FFS CU Perelman describes this illusion as the HAND ISM TAL “invisible handcuffs” of capitalism and F CAPI O Y STIFLES TYRANN MARKET WORKERS HOW TUNTING traces its roots back to Adam Smith and NOMY BY S THE ECO his contemporaries. He argues that far ERELMAN MICHAEL P 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.