On the show, the second in a two-part interview, Chris Hedges discusses with Professor David Harvey, the social, political, and economic consequences of neoliberalism and globalization, exploring alienation, the rise of authoritarianism, the significance of China in the world economy, the geopolitics of capitalism, carbon dioxide emissions and climate change and our collective response.

In our previous show we discussed central themes raised in The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles by Professor David Harvey, who is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Library Journal calls Professor Harvey “one of the most influential geographers of the later twentieth century.” Professor Harvey earned his Ph.D. 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. You can hear him on David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, a bimonthly podcast that looks at capitalism through a Marxist lens. He also gives a series of lectures called Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey on his web site DavidHarvey.org, which if you have not read volumes I and II of Marx’s Capital is an invaluable way to match your reading with insightful commentary on this classic work.

On the show, the first in a two-part interview, Chris Hedges discusses with Professor David Harvey the reconfiguration of global capitalism, the contradictions of neoliberalism, the financialization of power, the commodification of spectacle, Rate Versus Mass of Surplus Value, and other issues fundamental to economic literary.

David Harvey , Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is a leading theorist in the field of urban studies. Library Journal calls Professor Harvey “one of the most influential geographers of the later twentieth century.” Professor Harvey earned his Ph.D. 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.

He is a prolific author, including his books Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution; A Companion to Marx’s Capital; Social Justice and the City and his classic, A Brief History of Neoliberalism. You can hear him on David Harvey’s Anti-Capitalist Chronicles, a bimonthly podcast that looks at capitalism through a Marxist lens. He also gives a series of lectures called Reading Marx’s Capital with David Harvey on his web site DavidHarvey.org, which if you have not read volumes I and II of Marx’s Capital is an invaluable way to match your reading with insightful commentary on this classic work. His latest book is The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles.

Watch the second part of the interview.

David Harvey and Amna Akbar in conversation about Marx’s idea of human freedom
Sponsored by Haymarket Books
11 November 2020

The crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity for us to think again about Marx’s idea of human freedom. Emergency steps to get through the crisis also show us how we could build a different society that’s not beholden to capital.

Unless we address the root cause of those problems in the structure of our economic system, we’ll never be able to solve them.

This a moment where we can use this socialist imagination to construct an alternative society. This is not utopian. Our needs can only be taken care of through collective action.

Speakers:

David Harvey is a distinguished professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His latest books are The Anti-Capitalist Chronicles and The Ways of the World .

Amna Akbar is a professor of law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. She writes about policing and social movements, with a focus on grassroots demands for social change.