Crimes Against Nature

capitalism and global heating
Jeff Sparrow

‘Sparrow tells these stories with the lucidity and animation of a true crime podcast. He dissects the reactionary nature of placing mankind in opposition to nature: it not only erases millennia of Indigenous peoples’ relative harmony with the natural world, but seeks to preserve nature for the select few destroying it for everyone else. He is fearless too in his criticism of progressives who write off their fellow citizens as uncaring and complicit in global warming. That corporations invested in such sophisticated public relations campaigns shows they “understand something about ordinary peoples that escapes many environmentalists”: that ordinary people are not “innately greedy or selfish” … Amid the doom and gloom of so much contemporary environmentalism, this is worthy of applause.’

Conrad Landin, The Saturday Paper

‘I find it difficult to read about climate change at the moment, because the problem feels overwhelming and ultimately fatal to all of us. But Crimes Against Nature: Capitalism and Global Heating promises hope.’

Jo Case, InDaily

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‘The common narrative that pits humanity against nature assumes that our “innate greed” implicates us all in climate change. The environmental movement, too, buys into this myth with its longing for pristine wilderness unspoiled by humankind, argues Jeff Sparrow. This urgent, incisive work resoundingly refutes this arbitrary divide by showing how industrialisation, in the hands of the wealthy and powerful, drove a wedge between ordinary people and the natural world. Hence, the simplistic “jobs versus environment” binary that stymies our current climate-change debate. The alternative, however, is right under our noses. “In pre-capitalist Australia, humans did not despoil the land.” They worked in harmony with it, enhancing nature rather than plundering it. And it was a collective endeavour. It is in this understanding of human nature that Sparrow finds hope.’

Cameron Woodhead & Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘[E]xquisitely argued.’

Thomas Klikauer, Marx & Philosophy

Praise for Fascists Among Us:

‘This short but incisive book builds to a stirring and well-argued conclusion … What Sparrow does so eloquently … is overtly link fascism, historically and theoretically, with political violence.’

Kelsey Oldham, Books + Publishing, starred review

Praise for Trigger Warnings:

‘In the age of fake news and the seeming triumph of political populism, Jeff Sparrow’s Trigger Warnings is a vital book for our times. With the integrity of political thought and action under threat from social media sloganeering, with Donald Trump holding court in the White House and “political correctness” the catch-all suffocation of dissent, Jeff Sparrow challenges us to respond with intelligence and conviction.’

Tony Birch, author of Ghost River

Praise for No Way But This:

‘Sparrow shows how this admittedly splendid actor, this marvelous singer, this charismatic speaker, had somehow evolved into something more: he had for many people become the embodiment of the global longing for a better world, a juster dispensation … Sparrow has made perfect and haunting sense of him.’

Simon Callow, New York Review of Books

‘Sparrow is one of Australia's leading public intellectuals, and Crimes Against Nature is both provocative and deeply considered … Get ready for a myth-shattering call to arms.’

SALife

A polemic about global warming and the environmental crisis which argues that ordinary people have consistently opposed the destruction of nature and so provide an untapped constituency for climate action.

Crimes Against Nature uses fresh material to offer a very different take on the most important issue of our times. It takes the familiar narrative about global warming — the one in which we are all to blame — and inverts it, to show how, again and again, pollution and ecological devastation have been imposed on the population without our consent and (often) against our will. From histories of destruction, it distils stories of hope, highlighting the yearning for a more sustainable world that returns again and again.

In the era of climate strikes, viral outbreaks, and Extinction Rebellion, Crimes Against Nature moves from ancient Australia to the ‘corpse economy’ of Georgian Britain to the ‘Kitchen Debate’ of the Cold War to present an unexpected and optimistic environmental history — one that identifies ordinary people not as a problem but as a promise.

Conrad Landin, The Saturday Paper

Jo Case, InDaily

View all reviews

Cameron Woodhead & Fiona Capp, The Sydney Morning Herald

‘[E]xquisitely argued.’

Thomas Klikauer, Marx & Philosophy

Praise for Fascists Among Us:

Kelsey Oldham, Books + Publishing, starred review

Praise for Trigger Warnings:

Tony Birch, author of Ghost River

Praise for No Way But This:

Simon Callow, New York Review of Books

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 234mm × 153mm

Extent:240pp

ISBN (13):9781914484230

RRP:£16.99

Pub date:11 Nov 2021

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Nonfiction - Short-listed

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AUTHOR

Jeff Sparrow

Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor, broadcaster, and Walkley Award–winning journalist. He is a columnist for The Guardian Australia, a former Breakfaster at Melbourne’s 3RRR, and a past editor of Overland literary journal. His most recent books are Fascists Among Us: online hate and the Christchurch massacre; Trigger Warnings: political correctness and the rise of the right; and No Way But This: in search of Paul Robeson. He lectures at the Centre for Advancing Journalism at The University of Melbourne.

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We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

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