New books for reds and greens. Three centuries of factories; Holland in the Little Ice Age; Thinking in deep time; Horizontal gene transfer; The physics of evolution

Ecosocialist Bookshelf is an occasional feature. We can’t review every book we receive, but we will list and link to any that seem relevant to Climate & Capitalism’s mission, along with brief descriptions. Titles listed here may be reviewed in future.

Please note: Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement, or that we agree with everything (or even anything!) the book says.

Joshua B. Freeman

BEHEMOTH

A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World

W.W. Norton, 2018

The factory revolution has transformed human life and the environment. Freeman traces factory history from the textile mills in England to today’s sweatshops that make sneakers, toys, and cellphones in China and Vietnam, and shows how protest movements won worker rights and protections that are taken for granted today. A magisterial work on factories and the people whose labor made them run.

Dagomar Degroot

THE FRIGID GOLDEN AGE

Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560–1720

Cambridge University Press, 2018

The first detailed analysis of how a society thrived amid the Little Ice Age, a period of climatic cooling that reached its chilliest point between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The Little Ice Age presented not only challenges for Dutch citizens but also opportunities that they aggressively exploited, offering lessons that we would be wise to heed today, as we confront the growing crisis of global warming.

Marcia Bjornerud

TIMEFULNESS

How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

Princeton University Press, 2018

Knowing the rhythms of Earth’s deep past and conceiving of time as a geologist does can give us the perspective we need for a more sustainable future. Marcia Bjornerud explains why understanding deep time is vital in the Anthropocene, this human epoch of accelerating planetary change, and proposes solutions for building a more time-literate society.

David Quammen

THE TANGLED TREE

A Radical New History of Life

Simon & Schuster, 2018

Recent discoveries in molecular biology can change our understanding of evolution and life’s history, with implications for human health and human nature. David Quammen’s chronicle of the discovery of Horizontal Gene Transfer, the movement of genes between species, shows how a new view of evolution is emerging, and examines its implications for humanity’s place in the history of life.

Charles S. Cockell

THE EQUATIONS OF LIFE

How Physics Shapes Evolution

Basic Books, 2018

Biologist Charles S. Cockell argues that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution’s outcomes predictable, because there is a narrow set of possible solutions to the challenges of existence. A radical argument about what life can and cannot be, on Earth or any other planet.