Books on Ecology, Environment, and Science

Critique of Intelligent Design
Materialism versus Creationism
from Antiquity to the Present
by John Bellamy Foster,
Brett Clark, and Richard York

A critique of religious dogma historically provides the basis for rational inquiry into the physical and social world. Critique of Intelligent Design is a key to understanding the forces of irrationalism that seek to undermine the natural and social sciences. This book illuminates the historical evolution of the materialist critiquethat is, explaining the world in terms of itselffrom antiquity to the present through engaging the work of Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Stephen Jay Gould, among others.

Biology Under the Influence
Dialectical Essays on Ecology,
Agriculture, and Health
by Richard Lewontin
and Richard Levins

How do we understand the world? While some look to the heavens for intelligent design, others argue that it is determined by information encoded in DNA. Science serves as an important activity for uncovering the processes and operations of nature, but it is also immersed in a social context where ideology influences the questions we ask and how we approach the material world. Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on Ecology, Agriculture, and Health breaks from the confines of determinism, offering a dialectical analysis for comprehending a dynamic social and natural world.

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Coming to Terms with Nature
Socialist Register 2007
edited by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys

Coming to Terms with Nature: Socialist Register 2007 examines whether capitalism can come to terms with today’s ecological challenges and whether socialist thought has developed sufficiently to help us do so. Topics include: the ecological contradictions of capitalist accumulation and the growing social conflicts they create; the relationship between imperialism, markets, oil politics, and renewable energy; the significance of the impasse over the Kyoto protocol; and how technology can overcome the “limits to growth” and yet preserve the biosphere.

Hungry For Profit
The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment
by Fred Magdoff,
John Bellamy Foster, and Frederick H. Buttel

The agribusiness/food sector is the second most profitable industry in the United States — following pharmaceuticals — with annual sales over $400 billion. Contributing to its profitability are the breathtaking strides in biotechnology coupled with the growing concentration of ownership and control by food’s largest corporations.

A History of World Agriculture
From the Neolithic Age to the
Current Crisis
by Marcel Mazoyer and Laurence Roudart

A History of World Agricultureis a path-breaking and panoramic work, beginning with the emergence of agriculture after thousands of years in which human societies had depended on hunting and gathering, showing how agricultural techniques developed in the different regions of the world, and how this extraordinary wealth of knowledge, tradition and natural variety is endangered today by global capitalism, as it forces the unequal agrarian heritages of the world to conform to the norms of profit.

Ecology Against Capitalism
by John Bellamy Foster




In a broad-ranging treatment of contemporary ecological politics, Ecology Against Capitalismcovers sustainable development, ecological economics, and analyzes technological responses to environmental crisis, including pollution, population growth, soil fertility, the preservation of ancient forests, and the "new economy" of the Internet age.

Killing Me Softly
Toxic Waste, Corporate Profit,
and the Struggle for
Environmental Justice
by Eddie J. Girdner and Jack Smith

Killing Me Softly examines the growth of the toxic waste industry and the economic logic behind its expansion. It gives a hard-hitting account of the damage it has done throughout the United States. It focuses in particular on the struggle of the people of Mercer County, Missouri, against the plans of Amoco Waste-Tech to establish a huge toxic waste landfill in the county. It shows how the persistence of ordinary people in a poor and politically marginalized area could prevail against the predations of corporate power.

Marx’s Ecology
Materialism and Nature
by John Bellamy Foster

“Marx’s Ecology is a compelling, thought-provoking read that effectively and authoritatively pries open a space in the rather over-published realm of Marxist theory for a debate concerning the relationship between materialism and ecology. It should offer a catalyst to a serious reconsideration of the common assumption that Marx’s work has little to offer ecological discourse, beyond novel and sporadic secondary observations of the environmental effects of capitalist development.”— Human Ecology Review

The Vulnerable Planet
A Short Economic History of the Environment
by John Bellamy Foster

The Vulnerable Planet has won respect as the best single-volume introduction to the global environmental crisis. This edition includes a new afterword by the author.

“The strength of [John Bellamy] Foster's book lies in its broad historical and geographical sweep.... A fine contribution to a critical sociology of important environmental issues .... Extraordinarily well written....” —Contemporary Sociology

Science and the Retreat from Reason
by John Gillot and Manjit Kumar

While providing a clear and intelligible introduction to key areas of modern scientific thought, Gillot and Kumar mount a challenge to the anti-interventionist attitude which suggests that human beings must concede to nature. Science and the Retreat from Reason argues that it is loss of faith in progress that explains today's loss of faith in science.