title: Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital
author:  Jason W. Moore 
description: If nothing else, the climate crisis demonstrates that the history of capitalism is a thoroughly environmental one. This energizing book proposes an inventive framework for making sense of that past, and for orienting ourselves as we get down to the business of changing the future. <br /><b>Naomi Klein, author of <i>This Changes Everything</i> and <i>The Shock Doctrine</i></b><br /><br /> The achievement of Moores book is to move past a metaphysical concept of nature towards an historical one  Such a rich historical understanding of world-ecological regimes is going to be of vital importance.<br /><b> McKenzie Wark, <i>Public Seminar</i></b><br /><br /> <i>Capitalism in the Web of Lif</i>e seeks to analyze the root cause of this impasse for environmentalism: the widely-shared view that the environment is a separate and unique part of existence outside of capitalism that capitalism devalues.<br /><b><i>New Inquiry</i></b><br /><br />Nature is not a foundation, container, or resource; it is us. As Moore tells us, we must live history as if nature matters. <br /><b>Donna Haraway, University of California at Santa Cruz<br /></b><br /> If youre interested in cutting-edge ecological thinking,<i> Capitalism in the Web of Life</i> is a must-read. Moores scope is vast, and few could pull off as ambitious an analytical achievement as he has here. Theres enough scholarship, wit and insight to leave your copy with margin notes on every page, and ideas for a lifetime. A landmark book. <br /><b>Raj Patel, author of <i>Stuffed and Starved</i></b><br /><br /> Moores radical and rigorous work is, and richly deserves to be, agenda-setting. <br /><b>China Miville</b><br /><br /> An exciting major work that puts forward a new paradigm of world-ecology. <br /><b>Immanuel Wallerstein, author of <i>World-Systems Analysi</i>s</b><br /><br /> A superb and much needed book, rigorous, groundbreaking, yet accessible. <br /><b>Christian Parenti, author of <i>Tropic of Chaos</i></b><br /><br /> Probably the most significant work of eco-Marxism out there.<br /><b> Benjamin Kunkel, author of <i>Utopia or Bust </i></b> <br /><br /> The type of theory we should all be pursuing If you dont have a copy of this thing already, you should get one.<br /><b> Samuel Fassbinder, <i>Daily Kos</i></b><br /><br />A magisterial rethinking of world environmental history. It makes for a major work of synthesis and theory.<br /><b>Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley</b><br /><br /> Jason Moores <i>Capitalism in the Web of Life</i> is, above all else, an ambitious book  Moore sets out to do nothing less than to articulate, under the name of world-ecology, a new paradigm for critical scholarship on capitalism, world history, and environmental thought that will transcend, once and for all, the dualism that for him is the singular source of all of the violence of modernity.<br /> <b>Sara Nelson, Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography</b><br /><br /> Moores theoretical contribution, and it is major, is his insistence that value is determined by, and capitalism is dependent upon, what he calls the Four Cheaps  His examples are wide-ranging and historical. Moore is at his best in this book when he not only ranges across centuries but also ranges across numerous fields of thought, most notably laboring to overcome the divide between Marxist value theory and ecology.<br /><b> Juliana Spahr, <i>Mediations: Journal of the Marxist Literary Group</i></b><br /><br />Not only does Moore provide an exceptionally powerful sense of the dystopian impact of capitalismhe also reveals a compelling dialectical grasp not just of how it might have to come to an end, but why it would be deplorable even if there were no limits to its continuing.<br /> <b>Kate Soper, <i>Radical Philosophy</i></b><br /><br />For nearly two decades, environmental historian Jason Moores world-ecology theorisation has crossed the boundaries of sociological, historical, environmental, economic and literary disciplines. His monograph, an amalgamation of decades of research and critical writing as well as cross-disciplinary engagement in the humanities and social sciences, is likely to become central to future environmental theorisation.<br /> <b>Michael Paye, <i>Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism</i></b><br /><br /> Moore calls for a new ontological politics to subvert the metaphysical and moral imagination of capitalist nature  Affirms historical materialism as the basis for the solution to our ecological crisis.<br /> <b>Eugene McCarraher, <i>Commonweal</i></b><br /><br /> Jason Moore  has produced a text that is required reading. Moore  seeks to bring nature to the centre of historical change and a dialectical understanding of capitalism to the heart of the analysis.<br /><b><i>Marx and Philosophy Review of Books</i></b><br /><br /> <i>Capitalism in the Web of Life</i> is required reading for all those with an interest in the patterns of development of agriculture in capitalism, both historical and contemporary.<br /><b>Henry Bernstein, <i>Journal of Agrarian Change</i></b><br /><br /> Few books published today have such a broad scope or are as forceful in their claims, and <i>Capitalism in the Web of Life</i> is certain to spark productive conversations in upper-level political ecology and critical development seminars, as well as among faculty working in a range of disciplines.<br /><b> Eric H. Thomas, <i>Journal of Political Ecology</i></b>
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  # _Capitalism in the Web of Life_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **Jason W. Moore** is an environmental historian and political economist in
  the Department of Sociology at Binghamton University and coordinator of the
  World-Ecology Research Network.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # _Capitalism in the Web of Life_
  
  
  ## Ecology and the Accumulation  
  of Capital
  
  
  ### Jason W. Moore
  
  
  ![images](images/img_piii.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  First published by Verso 2015
  
  
  © Jason W. Moore
  
  
  All rights reserved
  
  
  The moral rights of the author have been asserted
  
  
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  **Verso**
  
  
  UK: 6 Meard Street, London W1F 0EG
  
  
  US: 20 Jay Street, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201
  
  
  [www.versobooks.com](http://www.versobooks.com)
  
  
  Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
  
  
  ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-902-8 (PB)
  
  
  ISBN-13: 978-1-78168-901-1 (HC)
  
  
  eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-904-2 (US)
  
  
  eISBN-13: 978-1-78168-903-5 (UK)
  
  
  **British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data**
  
  
  A catalog