Anti-Capitalist Chronicles by David Harvey

In this book, The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, David Harvey, leading Marxist geographer and theorist of capitalism, offers interventions in the current conjuncture. It provides timely observations and incisive interventions into current events and contemporary debates. Likewise, the book offers a Marxist framework for analyzing the underappreciated features of anti-capitalist struggles and their connections internationally.

Few are better situated to discuss the present crisis of capitalism and the crossroads of political possibility. A leading theorist in the field of urban studies whom Library Journal called “one of the most influential geographers of the later twentieth century,” David Harvey is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and author of more than twenty books.

Harvey speaks internationally not just on campuses and institutes but also in homeless encampments, takeover buildings, popular education schools, prisons, activist gatherings, and more. He is a public intellectual in dialogue with dozens of social movements around the globe. David Harvey earned his PhD from Cambridge University and was formerly professor of geography at Johns Hopkins, a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics, and Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at Oxford.

While noted as one of the most cited authors in the humanities and social sciences, since the publication of The New Imperialism (2003), Harvey has been increasingly focused on writing for a popular audience, in books including A Brief History of Neoliberalism (2005), The Enigma of Capital (2010), Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism (2014), and Marx, Capital, and the Madness of Economic Reason (2017).

Alongside these publications, Harvey has also been an innovator in the online space for over a decade. Harvey has more than 120,000 followers on Twitter (@profdavidharvey) and a very active website (davidharvey.org) and social media presence. Senior demographer at the Pew Research Center, Conrad Hackett, posted a list of most followed sociologists on Twitter in 2017, and David Harvey ranked number four. Hackett also linked to a list of the top economists on Twitter, by followers, and Harvey ranked number 15. This is a testament to Harvey’s broad influence that he was the only person to appear on both lists, even though neither a sociologist nor an economist.

The book is inspired by Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, a bi-monthly podcast and online video series that looks at contemporary capitalism through a Marxist lens. The podcast is made possible by Democracy at Work, a non-profit that produces media and live events. Their work analyzes capitalism as a systemic problem and advocates systemic solutions. This is not the first book of David Harvey inspired by his online digital projects. In 2008, David Harvey and co-editor Chris Caruso produced “Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey,” a free online video course (http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/). Harvey’s online courses and accompanying website attracted a large global audience and were viewed over four and a half million times in over two hundred countries. That audience took action in various ways including the self-organization of hundreds of Capital study circles around the globe and the spontaneous crowed-sourced initiative which is translating Professor Harvey’s Volume I lectures into 45 languages.

The viral success of the Capital classes has been credited with reviving an interest in studying Marx which had waned since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The “Reading Marx’s Capital” online course presaged the later development of the Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) and represented innovation in educational technology that is now widely emulated. Those online classes were the inspiration for A Companion to Marx’s Capital (2010) and A Companion to Marx’s Capital, Volume 2 (2013).

The analysis put forth in The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles is essential for political and social movements and everyday people concerned about injustice in mapping the current terrain of class struggle. Written in a conversational style, we see this volume offering a new, accessible entry point into his larger body of work. It is suitable for those reading David Harvey for the first time as well as those who are well versed in hos writings. At the end of the book, we have provided both recommendations for further reading on the topic as well as discussion questions for each chapter. Based on the global phenomenon of study circles spontaneously arising around the “Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey” course, we have structured this book to be used as a tool for popular education for organizers, activists, and others, as well as more formal classroom settings.

Throughout the 19 chapters, Harvey treats contemporary issues including the concentration of finance and monetary power in the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, the General Motors plant closing, the emerging alliance between neoliberals and neo-fascists in Brazil and across the globe, the significance of China in the global economy, and carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. He takes up key concepts in Marxism and socialism including the origins and development of capital, alienation, socialism and “un-freedom”, and the geography and geopolitics of capital accumulation. Harvey considers the attempts and failures of the Trump administration to solve the crisis of neoliberalism, and the necessity of organizing a socialist alternative.

These are dark and dangerous days where there is great need for deep analysis and understanding of the forces arrayed against us as well as visionary alternatives for transforming society to meet the needs of all. Harvey’s work has contributed to the renewal of the Marxist tradition which has served as a beacon for revolutionaries for over century. This book offers a rekindling of that tradition to light our way as we face the urgent life and death struggles of our time.