Rev Left Radio Dialectics Without Destiny: Marx, Darwin, and the Natural History of the Climate Crisis
4 snips
Mar 25, 2026 Joel Wainwright, professor of geography and author of The End, explores Marx’s debt to Darwin and how that reshapes a natural-historical reading of capitalism. They probe capitalism as a human–Earth formation, debates over ecological socialism and degrowth, and the political strategies—from local organizing to global climate mobilization—needed to confront the climate crisis.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Author's Note On Cut Chapters And Companion Book
- Joel describes how his original book plan included extra chapters, one becoming a separate book on the Anthropocene and the atomic bomb.
- He mentions the companion volume The Anthropocene and the Atomic Bomb to be published by MIT Press.
Marx's Shift From Teleology To Open-Ended History
- Marx became explicitly anti-teleological after reading Darwin, shifting from assured stages to open-ended tendencies.
- Joel argues Capital treats socioeconomic formations as natural-historical processes shaped by chance, probabilities, and multiple possible outcomes.
Reading Capital As Marxian Natural History
- Marx explicitly frames Capital as a work of natural history, viewing economic formations as products of processes within nature.
- Joel links Marx's preface and Darwinian natural history to argue Capital analyzes capitalism like Darwin analyzed species change.
