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A review by michaelsmith
Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planetand What We Can Do About It by Nancy Fraser
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do about It has a misleading title; the “what can we do about it” part only spans the final six of the book’s 157 pages.
That said, the rest of the book is as-advertised. It identifies many of the current crises of our time—stark international and interracial inequalities, a mounting deficit of care work, global warming and ecological devastation, as well as democratic backsliding and the collapse of state capacity—as crises with a shared origin in capitalism’s pursuit of growth by destroying the very things that make it possible.
The book began its life as a series of lectures, which absolutely shows in the finished product. Different chapters (formerly different lectures) often repeat each other. Citations are relegated to endnotes, and while famous scholars are mentioned by name, the research supporting the book’s assertions is generally unaddressed in the main text. To cut down on the repetition, I would advise readers to start with the first and last chapters, and to move on to the four middle chapters if something seems unclear or if they want an historical overview of one of the four crises.
The book’s thesis itself is strong, but not all of its chapters are equally clear or convincing. For example, in chapter two the author variously defines expropriation as “domination unmediated by a wage contract” and situations in which “capital failed to pay the full costs of [workers’] reproduction.” Figuring out which definition the author is using at a given time takes some guesswork that a more thorough editing job could have eliminated.
Ultimately, this is a good book that changed my view of capitalism and our current moment. With more diligent editing and a more through attempt at combining the lectures into a cohesive whole, this could have been a great book.
That said, the rest of the book is as-advertised. It identifies many of the current crises of our time—stark international and interracial inequalities, a mounting deficit of care work, global warming and ecological devastation, as well as democratic backsliding and the collapse of state capacity—as crises with a shared origin in capitalism’s pursuit of growth by destroying the very things that make it possible.
The book began its life as a series of lectures, which absolutely shows in the finished product. Different chapters (formerly different lectures) often repeat each other. Citations are relegated to endnotes, and while famous scholars are mentioned by name, the research supporting the book’s assertions is generally unaddressed in the main text. To cut down on the repetition, I would advise readers to start with the first and last chapters, and to move on to the four middle chapters if something seems unclear or if they want an historical overview of one of the four crises.
The book’s thesis itself is strong, but not all of its chapters are equally clear or convincing. For example, in chapter two the author variously defines expropriation as “domination unmediated by a wage contract” and situations in which “capital failed to pay the full costs of [workers’] reproduction.” Figuring out which definition the author is using at a given time takes some guesswork that a more thorough editing job could have eliminated.
Ultimately, this is a good book that changed my view of capitalism and our current moment. With more diligent editing and a more through attempt at combining the lectures into a cohesive whole, this could have been a great book.