John Bellamy Foster

{{Infobox person

| name = John Bellamy Foster

| image = John Bellamy Foster - 2013.jpg

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1953|8|19}}

| birth_place = Seattle, Washington

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| education = Evergreen State College, B.A., 1975

York University, M.A., 1977, Ph.D., 1984

| occupation = Professor, Editor

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| employer = University of Oregon

| known_for = Marxist writings

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| title = Professor of Sociology

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| boards = Monthly Review Foundation

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| awards = Deutscher Memorial Prize (2020){{cite web | url=https://www.deutscherprize.org.uk/wp/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201201054552/https://www.deutscherprize.org.uk/wp/ | archive-date=2020-12-01 | title=The Deutscher Memorial Prize }}

| website = {{URL|johnbellamyfoster.org}}

| footnotes = {{cite book

|chapter=John Bellamy Foster |title=The Writers Directory

|location=Detroit |publisher=St. James Press |access-date=2013-01-21

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| via =fee, Fairfax County Public Library |date=June 8, 2012

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John Bellamy Foster (born August 19, 1953) is an American professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of the Monthly Review. He writes about political economy of capitalism and economic crisis, ecology and ecological crisis, and Marxist theory.[http://monthlyreview.org/2012/12/01/the-planetary-emergency The Planetary Emergency] with Brett Clark, Monthly Review

Early life

Foster was active in the anti-war and environmental movements before enrolling at Evergreen State College in 1971.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} He studied economics in response to what he saw as an unfolding crisis in the capitalist economy and US involvement with the 1973 Chilean coup d'état.

In 1976, he moved to Canada and entered the political science graduate program at York University in Toronto. He submitted his 1979 paper, The United States and Monopoly Capital: The Issue of Excess Capacity, to Paul Sweezy of Monthly Review. He also was published in journals such as The Quarterly Journal of Economics and Science & Society, and, in 1986, published The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism: An Elaboration of Marxian Political Economy, based on his Ph.D. dissertation.

Foster was hired in 1985 as a Visiting Member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. One year later he took a position as assistant professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, and became a full professor of sociology in 2000. In 1989 he became a director of the Monthly Review Foundation Board and a member of the editorial committee of Monthly Review.{{cite book |last= |first= |title=Macrosociology: The Study of Sociocultural Systems |publisher=Edwin Mellen |year=2009 |isbn=978-0773449008 |editor-last=Elwell |editor-first=Frank W. |location=Lewiston |pages=77–106, Chapter 3}}

''Monthly Review''

Foster published his first article for Monthly Review, "Is Monopoly Capital an Illusion?", while in graduate school in 1981. He became a director of the Monthly Review Foundation Board and a member of the Monthly Review editorial committee in 1989. Along with Robert McChesney, who had since their days at Evergreen College become a leading scholar of the political economy of the media, Foster joined Paul Sweezy and Harry Magdoff as a co-editor of Monthly Review in 2000. Two years later, he became president of the Monthly Review Foundation.

After Paul Sweezy's death in 2004, Robert McChesney's resignation as co-editor (while remaining on the board), and Harry Magdoff's death in 2006, Foster was left as sole editor of the magazine.

Work

Foster's initial research centered on Marxian political economies and theories of capitalist development, with a focus on Paul Sweezy and Paul Baran's theory of monopoly. This was reflected in Foster's early book The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism and the coedited volume (with Henryk Szlajfer), The Faltering Economy: The Problem of Accumulation under Monopoly Capitalism.{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|title=The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism|date=1986|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|last2=Szlajfer|first2=Henryk|title=The Faltering Economy|url=https://archive.org/details/falteringeconomy00fost_0|url-access=registration|date=1984|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}

In the late 1980s, Foster turned toward issues of ecology. He focused on the relationship between the global environmental crisis and the crisis in the capitalist economy, while stressing the imperative for a sustainable, socialist alternative. During this period he published The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment; his article "Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift" in the American Journal of Sociology; and Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature.{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|title=The Vulnerable Planet|date=1999|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}{{cite journal|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|title=Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift|journal=American Journal of Sociology|date=1999|volume=105|issue=2|pages=366–405|doi=10.1086/210315|citeseerx=10.1.1.534.2551|s2cid=53608115}} His reinterpretation of Marx on ecology introduced the concept of "metabolic rift" and was widely influential. This work led to his receiving the Distinguished Contribution Award of the American Sociological Association's Environment and Technology section. Marx's Ecology itself received the book award from the ASA's Section on Marxist Sociology.{{Cite web|url=https://www.asanet.org/communities-sections/sections/current-sections/marxist-sociology/marxist-sociology-award-recipient-history|title=Marxist Sociology Award Recipient History|date=November 5, 2010|website=American Sociological Association}} This work was soon followed up by his book Ecology Against Capitalism, which focused on the critique of capitalist economics from the standpoint of the environment.{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|title=Ecology Against Capitalism|date=2002|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}

As editor of Monthly Review, Foster returned to his earlier work on the political economy of capitalism, but with a renewed focus on the role of U.S. foreign policy following September 2001. His 2006 book Naked Imperialism, along with frequent editorials in the pages of Monthly Review, attempted to account for the growing U.S. military role in the world and the shift toward a more visible, aggressive global projection.{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|title=Naked Imperialism|date=2006|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}} Additionally, Foster has worked to expand Sweezy and Baran's theory of monopoly capital in light of the current financially led phase of capitalism, which he terms "monopoly-finance Capital." In this context he has written several books on the financialization of capitalism and financial crisis of 2007–08.{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|last2=Magdoff|first2=Fred|title=The Great Financial Crisis|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781583671849|url-access=registration|date=2009|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|last2=McChesney|first2=Robert|title=The Endless Crisis|date=2012|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}

Critique of Intelligent Design, Foster's book co-authored with Brett Clark and Richard York, is a continuation of his research on materialist philosophy and the relationship between ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and Karl Marx. Drawing on his ecological work, particularly Marx’s Ecology, Foster defends historical materialism as fundamental to a rational, scientific worldview, against proponents of intelligent design and other non-materialist ideologies.{{cite book|last1=Foster|first1=John Bellamy|last2=Clark|first2=Brett|last3=York|first3=Richard|title=Critique of Intelligent Design|url=https://archive.org/details/critiqueofintell00fost|url-access=registration|date=2008|publisher=Monthly Review Press|location=New York}}

Foster's book The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology (2020) won the Deutscher Memorial Prize for that year. In the book, "Foster explores how socialist analysts and materialist scientists of various stamps, first in Britain, then the United States, from William Morris and Friedrich Engels to Joseph Needham, Rachel Carson, and Stephen Jay Gould, sought to develop a dialectical naturalism, rooted in a critique of capitalism."{{Cite web|last=Foster|first=John Bellamy|title=Monthly Review {{!}} The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology|url=https://monthlyreview.org/product/the-return-of-nature/|access-date=2020-11-14|website=Monthly Review|date=20 May 2020 |language=en-US}}

Bibliography

The Vulnerable Planet (1999)
Marx's Ecology (2000)
Ecology Against Capitalism (2002)
The Ecological Revolution (2009)
The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism (2014)
Foster, J.B., B. Clark, and R. York (2010) The Ecological Rift
Foster, J.B. and R.W. McChesney (2012) The Endless Crisis
Foster, J.B. and P. Burkett (2016) Marx and the Earth {{Cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/title/21668|title=Marx and the Earth: An Anti-Critique|first1=John Bellamy|last1=Foster|first2=Paul|last2=Burkett|date=January 12, 2016|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004288799 |via=brill.com}}
Trump in the White House: Tragedy and Farce (2017){{Cite web|url=https://monthlyreview.org/product/trump_in_the_white_house/|title=Trump in the White House: Tragedy and Farce|first=Robert W.|last=McChesney|work=Monthly Review|date=11 October 2017 }}
The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology (2020)
Capitalism in the Anthropocene: Ecological Ruin or Ecological Revolution (2022)

Articles, lectures, and interviews

1999. Marx's theory of metabolic rift: classical foundations for environmental sociology. American Journal of Sociology 105(2):366-405. DOI: 10.1086/210315
2016. Marxism in the Anthropocene: dialectical rifts on the Left. International Critical Thought 6(3):393-421. DOI: 10.1080/21598282.2016.1197787

References

External links

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[http://johnbellamyfoster.org John Bellamy Foster's personal website]