The Ways of the World
by
David Harvey
4.08 · Rating details · 52 ratings · 13 reviews
David Harvey is one of most famous Marxist intellectuals in the past half century, as well as one of the world's most cited social scientists. Beginning in the early 1970s with his trenchant and still-relevant book Social Justice and the City and through this day, Harvey has written numerous books and dozens of influential essays and articles on topics across issues in politics, culture, economics, and social justice.
In The Ways of the World, Harvey has gathered his most important essays from the past four decades. They form a career-spanning collection that tracks not only the development of Harvey over time as an intellectual, but also a dialectical vision that gradually expanded its reach from the slums of
Baltimore to global environmental degradation to the American imperium.
While Harvey's coverage is wide-ranging, all of the pieces tackle the core concerns that have always animated his work:
capitalism past and present,
social change, freedom, class, imperialism, the city, nature, social justice,
postmodernity, globalization, and the crises that inhere in capitalism.
A career-defining volume, The Ways of the World will stand as a comprehensive work that presents the trajectory of Harvey's lifelong project in full.
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Hardcover, 384 pages
postmodernity, globalization, and the crises that inhere in capitalism.
A career-defining volume, The Ways of the World will stand as a comprehensive work that presents the trajectory of Harvey's lifelong project in full.
(less)
Hardcover, 384 pages
Average rating4.08 ·
Rating details
· 52 ratings · 13 reviews
Feb 08, 2020Grigory rated it it was ok
Shelves: marxism, left, xx-century, xxi-century, imperialism
The book has some interesting insights scattered here and there, but otherwise, it's way too dense.
My opinion is that best David Harvey's books are the ones which have a concrete topic and subject. Because even then they have a lot of general reasoning, digressions and descriptions - just enough I would say. But as vague a topic as "The Ways of the World" just couldn't provide a structure. I would go so far as to say that most essays in the book are as vague as the title itself ...more
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Nov 07, 2020David rated it really liked it
Overview of the world, how the economic works, what’s the problems, and how to fix them.
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Feb 19, 2017Nick Jones rated it really liked it · review of another edition
I did geography throughout secondary school and by the end thoroughly hated it. The ‘physical’ geography, rock and river formations and that sort of stuff, never caught my imagination – so I still walk through the countryside a landscape illiterate; but the ‘human’ geography should have had more potential, but all I remember are statistics for population densities and lists of agricultural products and industries. But, forty years on, I have read a book of essays by a geographer. But I don’t know if I would recognize that many of the essays as geography. A number I would think of as political economy, some are maybe politics, one on the Sacre-Coeur I would think of as history. And I first knew of David Harvey when I was a politics undergraduate and the professor enthusiastically recommended Harvey’s The Limits to Capital as an introduction to Marx’s political economy. And I later read bits of his study of postmodernism which I tend to think of as a cultural phenomenon. But these eleven essays are about space – global and urban – which, I suppose, makes them geography. The important thing, however, is that Harvey does not feel constrained by the confines of academic disciplines – and this is probably because all of his work is unashamedly Marxist: Marxism never keeps to academic departments. Harvey, however, is not slavish to Marx: he is in dialogue with Marx: Marx might be the dominant speaker, but Harvey often says, “Yes, but...” and might disagree or fill in a gap. His contribution to Marxist political economy is placing Marx’s circulation of capital into geographical space. The Ways of the World is an introduction to Harvey’s career, many of the essays looking forward to later book length studies: the early essay on political economics, 'The Geography of Capitalist Accumulation’, looks forward to The Limits on Capital; the essay on the Sacre-Coeur looks towards his later book on Paris, etc. A slight disappointment is that the essay on postmodernism is just a chapter out of his The Condition of Postmodernity and the last essay on the financial crisis is a chapter out of The Enigma of Capital. His later work seems increasingly polemical, but his analysis of the ‘New Imperialism’ of the 21st Century and the recent global financial crisis seem rigorous and sensible to me. Throughout the essays there are a series of constant concerns: urbanisation; the relationship of local political action to global concerns; the relationship of the urban to the global, etc. The Ways of the World is an excellent introduction to Harvey’s work (and introduced me to parts of his thoughts that I had not previously encountered) – and don’t be put off if you find the first three essays heavily theoretical, he becomes more readable as he goes along. (less)
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Sep 15, 2017Muizz Adam rated it really liked it
A good, comprehensive introduction for someone still relatively new to his body of work. Some chapters are dense, but Harvey presents his arguments clearly enough for a layperson to understand. As an architect I found his writing incredibly enlightening, going a long way to explain the modes of production that result in the ongoing construction of built environments. Critical insights with real world relevance, however chilling they may be.
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Feb 13, 2017James rated it liked it
Have to admit I skimmed a lot of this because it was just too dense and dry for an average reader like me. Some interesting insights about physical landscape vs geography infrastructure. Also my first real introduction to some Marxist concepts, most accessible to me here as a critique of capitalism.
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May 04, 2018سامح rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
One of the most important books I have read in my life so far. I consider David Harvey as my personal teacher. I learned alot through his lectures and talks, and this book with it's dense analysis of ranging topics really helped me reshaping my understanding of the world. A must read book. ...more
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Oct 08, 2020Joseph Spuckler rated it really liked it
Shelves: philosophy, political-science
The Ways of the World by David Harvey is a collection of essays on relevant social and economic issues from a Marxist perspective. Harvey is the Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). A leading social theorist of international standing, he graduated from University of Cambridge with a Ph.D. in Geography in 1961.
First, a few general comments. Marxism is not Soviet communism or Chinese communism. There are many arguments about the Soviet Union, but at no time after Stalin was it more than an authoritarian state. China is the same but with a regulated market. Secondly, Marxism always seems to be written in a technical and philosophical style that makes most political philosophy students long for easier reading like Hegel. I still have difficulty today reading Marxist writings; this book included.
Harvey uses real-world examples and offers criticism to all systems mentioned. Perhaps in a more accurate historical sense, he uses the Paris Riots/Commune of 1871 as an example of a popular people's movement against the government and land use. As a geographer, Harvey examines urbanization and the problems associated with its evolution and development under a (mixed) Capitalist system. Trade is also discussed and the fall of local businesses.
A discussion of beer in Baltimore caught my attention. Baltimore was a one beer town up until 1970 then came regional beers followed by large brewers (Budweiser and Miller). I remember growing up in Cleveland with local beers like P.O.C. and Duke. There were regional beers which were comparable giants -- Stroh’s and Rolling Rock. Now the local beers are dead along with Stroh’s and Rolling Rock is owned by Miller. The cause of the change was market and growth and had nothing to do with the local population. The population did make a choice and outside beers were cheaper because they were brewed on a much larger scale. Is Budweiser better than Duke, or Rolling Rock? Probably not and definitely not the workers at the Duke or Rolling Rock plants. That story was not the main focus of the book but one I clearly related to.
The development and shifts in urban areas are the main topic in the book and also the causes and results of real estate booms and bust cycles. Baltimore and Cleveland were cities mentioned for the housing bust. Although the problem was very serious, it was the “where” that became the issue. Poor people in run down areas do not create a serious problem for others. In fact, Baltimore has more vacated housing than it has homeless. In my own research, I found Bank of America was bulldozing vacant housing and donating the land to the city in Cleveland. The housing bust, however, became an issue when it started affecting the middle class.
This is a book is for serious scholars and graduate-level students in the covered fields. The Ways of the World is a time-consuming read but worth the effort it if you are knowledgeable in the fields. Harvey does not have all the answers and isn’t afraid to admit it. He does make the reader think. Especially think about the endless growth required to keep a capitalist society out of recession. When land resources run low, they are recycled, gentrified, and force people and businesses to move. When products to sell a saturated market are needed we make “new” products. I think a good example of this is (or was) the new phone every two years with wireless plans. Does you phone become obsolete after two years or do you just have to have the latest as a status symbol? China and India are rising and their populations are wanting what the First World already has and in turn, taking in more of the planet's natural resources. Growth will have to end at some point in a world of limited resources. The Way of the World is an interesting examination of the world, currently and historically, and regardless of one’s politics, it brings to the forefront some very important questions.
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May 04, 2017J Earl rated it it was amazing
The Ways of the World is a collection of essays from David Harvey that span his career and presents a wonderful overview of his thought over the past 50 years or so. The rating I am giving is as much for this being an essential selection of his essays in one volume as it an opinion on his actual essays.
To considerably over simplify this collection I will say that these essays present critiques of capitalism, class, justice, globalization and much more through a Marxist lens and a geographical perspective. If you confuse Marxism with communism as presented in various communist states then you may want to brush up on the difference before reading these essays. That said, it can be surprising to realize just how much of capitalism's harm can be viewed through geography. Not physical geography so much but human geography.
These critiques address larger issues through looking at specific events such as strikes, buildings and product displacement. Sometimes looking at the hows and whys behind something requires more than simply understanding the marketplace or supply and demand, it requires understanding what is being changed on the local level and who is being adversely affected by these changes. Harvey does this and presents data to support his assessments and a strong theoretical foundation on which he builds his critiques.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in human geography, Marxist critiques of capitalisms old and new as well as social justice and equality. The read is not one to breeze through but should be readily accessible to any reader who has an interest in the area. Readers who already appreciate Harvey will also like this collection for the simple reason it collects some of his most cited essays into one convenient location.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. (less)
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Jan 23, 2018Matt Bristol rated it really liked it
As a political science and environmental studies graduate, this book served as an amazing opening into Marxist human geography and considering the occupation of the world's physical and philosophical structures by Capital. It's very dense, but worth not rushing through! If you are looking to challenge yourself and think more critically about human geography, this collection of essays is a great place to start. (less)
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Sep 11, 2017Rhys rated it really liked it
A great series of popular essays/chapters from David Harvey.
Though one may have read some of these in the past, the combination of topics and Harvey's added comments make this book interesting in itself.
I particularly liked the chapter on The Nature of Environment and his concept of spatiality.
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May 26, 2017Nishant rated it it was amazing
Shelves: academic-text-book, essay, philosophy, geography, radical, recommended-readings-on-cities
This book, a collection of David Harvey's finest scholarly works, is possibly the best introduction to his ideas and theory. Each essay also includes a short commentary by Harvey himself which briefly contextualizes the main arguments in the main text. (less)
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Aug 05, 2021Melike rated it liked it · review of another edition
Boş vakit okuması yapılacak bir kitap değil. Bakın bunlar yanlış ve düzeltilebilir seçenekler var görmek için güzel olsa da düzeltilecek bir dönemde yaşamayacağının inancını taşıyan ben, biraz sıkıldım okurken. Zaten makalelerin toplaması olduğu için, okuması zevkli diyemiyorum.
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Feb 21, 2016Billy O'Callaghan rated it liked it · review of another edition
David Harvey's latest book, 'The Ways of the World', is an important volume, particularly for readers unfamiliar with his work and ideas, in that it collects eleven key essays, all previous published, from across his long career. Each addresses different facets of urban geography in its broadest sense, giving consideration to inevitable social, environmental, financial, colonial and political evolution.
The opening piece sets the bar, and is essential in helping to explain Harvey's approach to geographical analysis. 'Revolutionary and Counter-Revolutionary Theory in Geography and the Problem of Ghetto Formation' was penned in the aftermath of the 1968 Baltimore riots, when as an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University, he undertook a detailed study of the housing conditions that had contributed to the uprising among the black population in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. In search of some perspective, he turned to Marx's 'Capital', and his gathering and analysis of data, coupled with a rigorous interpretation of the facts, earned him admiration among city officials, landlords and financiers, as well as notable plaudits within wider academia. But to ensure that the work would be considered on its own merits and without bias, he deemed it necessary to conceal the Marxist theories which had proven so vital in successfully constructing his case. And encouraged by the resultant reception, he began to immerse himself even deeper in these ideas.
Following on from this essay, he puts such left-leaning explorations front and centre, with 'The Geography of Capitalist Accumulation – a Reconstruction of the Marxian Theory'. In the short commentary addendum (a most helpful feature of the book, and one that, in accompanying each chapter, provides important hindsight considerations as to what has worked and what hasn't), Harvey explains that “The lack of any geographical perspectives in most left theorising and in Marxian political economy in particular was a hot topic in radical geography in the early 1970s” and that “Anarchist tradition... had within it a far more sensitive approach to questions of space, place and environment than mainstream Marxism.” His intention was to assemble the various asides and remarks of Marx on issues such as the production of space and the spatial dimensions of social relations, “to see if they could be synthesised into something more systematic.”
Geography is constantly changing, whether due to the vagaries of nature or the manipulations of mankind. Economics take their toll, as might be exemplified by China's digging itself out of west-inflicted recession by putting 27 million people to work pouring the concrete that will extend its cities. And in one of the book's most readable chapters, 'Monument and Myth', the impact of culture on the subject at hand is demonstrated using the fascinating history of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris.
'The Ways of the World' is a scholarly tome, the dense text reflective of a deep and constantly questioning intellect. But while it resists any kind of casual perusal, the lay reader will, with the necessary determination, find that Harvey's prose style possesses enough clarity to make his ideas accessible if rarely less than thought provoking. He states his aim early on: “to find a framework to understand the processes making and remaking our geography and the consequences thereof for human life and the environment of planet earth.” These collected essays bring him close to achieving that goal. (less)
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Top reviews from the United States
Anne Walker
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best overview of his work in book
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2017
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Harvey is a legend. Probably the best overview of his work in book.
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David Tonghou
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017
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Earl
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful collection of essays
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2017
The Ways of the World is a collection of essays from David Harvey that span his career and presents a wonderful overview of his thought over the past 50 years or so. The rating I am giving is as much for this being an essential selection of his essays in one volume as it an opinion on his actual essays.
To considerably over simplify this collection I will say that these essays present critiques of capitalism, class, justice, globalization and much more through a Marxist lens and a geographical perspective. If you confuse Marxism with communism as presented in various communist states then you may want to brush up on the difference before reading these essays. That said, it can be surprising to realize just how much of capitalism's harm can be viewed through geography. Not physical geography so much but human geography.
These critiques address larger issues through looking at specific events such as strikes, buildings and product displacement. Sometimes looking at the hows and whys behind something requires more than simply understanding the marketplace or supply and demand, it requires understanding what is being changed on the local level and who is being adversely affected by these changes. Harvey does this and presents data to support his assessments and a strong theoretical foundation on which he builds his critiques.
I would recommend this to anyone interested in human geography, Marxist critiques of capitalisms old and new as well as social justice and equality. The read is not one to breeze through but should be readily accessible to any reader who has an interest in the area. Readers who already appreciate Harvey will also like this collection for the simple reason it collects some of his most cited essays into one convenient location.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
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12 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries
David W.
5.0 out of 5 stars I won't pretend I found this easy to understand but I sure as hell enjoyed it
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2018
Verified Purchase
I won't pretend I found this easy to understand but I sure as hell enjoyed it. Some pages I had to read slowly, multiple times before the full weight of what was being explained to me sunk in (i'm new-ish to this level of analysis) but once it hit home, it was incredible. An amazing and eye opening book.
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Book Review: The Ways of the World by David Harvey
6 comments
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
The Ways of the World offers an intellectual journey through the work of David Harvey over the past five decades, compiling chapters and article excerpts from different periods in his career accompanied by retrospective commentary and insight from Harvey himself. Taken together, this collection serves as an excellent introduction to the theorist’s influential body of thought and makes a convincing call for readers to join the struggle for social justice, writes Erica Frazier.
If you are interested in this book, you may also like to listen to a podcast/video recording of David Harvey in conversation on ‘The Power of Ideas’, recorded at LSE on 10 December 2015.
The Ways of the World. David Harvey. Profile Books. 2016.
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The Ways of the WorldDavid Harvey’s latest book, The Ways of the World, is a selection of chapter and article excerpts taken from different periods in the geographer/social theorist’s career. It is tempting to describe the book as an academic ‘greatest hits’, because it is a portfolio of an influential figure that also sparks interest in (re-)visiting his previous work. However, there are no ‘throwaway tracks’ here; instead of falling victim to the hodgepodge feeling of some musical collections, there is a strong common theme uniting each element of this book: a Marxian analysis of the systemic inequality created and reinforced through our current political economy, an interpretation that emphasises the dialogue between people and place. Through this collection, Harvey makes a convincing call for readers to join the struggle for social justice.
The book features pieces from the early 1970s on through to Harvey’s current research, and each chapter ends with a commentary from the author. These explain the context in which the bulk of the chapter was originally written, and advances the author’s current thoughts on the subject using the benefit of hindsight. This structure creates a series of nicely self-contained units. The fact that each chapter offers new or unexpected information and perspectives, but can still be read independently, makes the book feel both intellectually rewarding and reader-friendly. Readers will also be drawn in by Harvey’s compelling writing style and the book’s refreshing variety of subjects. It not only offers Harvey’s critical perspectives on political economy, urbanisation and the environment, but also an analysis of contemporary literature and the little-known history behind the construction of a famous Parisian monument.
The book begins with some startling statistics. In recent years, China has seen an almost unimaginable construction boom. The introduction states that from 2011 to 2013, less than three years, the country used well over the amount of concrete poured in the United States throughout the entire twentieth century. Harvey explains that the Chinese economy has largely been reoriented towards debt-fuelled building projects, using this frenzy to introduce his conception of the ways that culture (including the political economy) and the environment shape one another. According to his interpretation, the Chinese government feared the over-accumulation of human capital. Having too many workers and not enough jobs produces a large population of restless people. This danger led the government to undertake construction projects of unprecedented scale, which would re-funnel labour by changing the country’s physical environment. These new surroundings would, in turn, affect the individuals who live there. This general schema conceptualising the interaction between societies and their environment reappears in each subsequent chapter, while remaining closely tied to the book’s thematic focus on exposing exploitation and injustice.
Image Credit: A View From Federal Hill with David Harvey (Daniel Lobo CC BY 2.0)
Chapter Four describes the famous Sacré Cœur Basilica as an attempt by the Catholic hierarchy to expiate France’s sins of secularism and immorality and to discredit the radical revolt of the Parisian Commune. Harvey later explains that, ironically, the site could also have been seen as a memorial to those who died trying to sever the State’s ties to the Church and establish socio-economic equality. Though little doubt remains as to which perspective ultimately prevailed—it is now a religious site—an engaging narrative unfolds as the chapter advances. A complicated series of events led to rebellious and conservative ‘martyrs’ alike meeting their terrestrial fates on the same hallowed heights overlooking the city. The story and its robust historical context are well complemented by contemporary illustrations, photographs and cultural anecdotes. The book demonstrates that Sacré Cœur Basilica is another excellent, and unexpected, example of a society’s exchanges with its environment. However, one of the most surprising portions of the book comes much later in Chapter Eight.
Chapter Eight advances a series of literary critiques offering a variation on the theme of cultural and environmental interaction by specifically posing the question of scale. It is also one of the most personal passages in the book. The chapter forms parallels with Welsh author Raymond Williams’s fictional works to demonstrate the difficulties and contradictions of Harvey’s own experience working with employees at a car plant in Cowley, England, in the late 1980s. It outlines their unsuccessful fight to keep the factory open as well as the way Harvey ultimately made sense of the experience. The processes of globalisation and competition were nearly impossible to counter because the resistance came from one small, local group.
However, Williams’s writing also shows how place plays an important role in shaping a society. Local movements must be constructed to provide solid foundations for the kind of wider social change that could challenge the injustices of global capitalism. Yet models for social transformation cannot be churned out through the same standardised mass production processes used for automobiles. The challenge is to achieve large-scale change that is locally powerful, or conversely, local change which can be successfully adapted to other contexts. This tension between the local and global highlights a very unevenly matched struggle which could leave readers feeling disheartened. Fortunately, Harvey does not remain content with the simple—and often much easier—role of the critic.
In addition to describing his involvement with labour unions and urban development projects, the book also offers ideas for building an effective opposition to the domination of capital and establishing a more just society. The first chapter of the book suggests ways that researchers could build new systems of social theory. Later chapters discuss the potential for new social movements and the mobilisation of marginalised urban populations. Here it is useful to mention that Harvey has also sought to promote social justice through democratising learning. He has a website featuring a series of free videos interpreting Capital by Karl Marx, which could help readers access some portions of this book.
Harvey’s latest book has a wide appeal. It would be particularly useful for those who are unacquainted or only vaguely familiar with the author’s work. The book’s breadth can be used as a starting point for readers to discover Harvey’s extended studies in the subjects most closely aligned to their own work or interests. Moreover, students and scholars from nearly any domain in the social sciences could benefit from how this collection demonstrates the ways in which Marxist theory can be applied to a range of subjects and fields. The book is an excellent introduction to Harvey’s work and personal engagements, and is also simply an enjoyable read.
Erica Frazier is a doctoral student pursuing a joint PhD in political science under the direction of Prof. John Barry at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland and Prof. Karin Fischer with the REMELICE laboratory at the Université d’Orléans, France. Her current research interests include political economy, green and labour politics and political discourses, cultures and movements in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics.
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