Ecological Crises and the Agrarian Question in World-Historical Perspective

Jason W. Moore teaches world history in the Division of Human Ecology, Lund University, and Department of Geography, University of North Carolina. This essay is adapted from an address to the “Agrarian Questions: Lineages and Prospects” conference on May 3, 2008, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. He welcomes correspondence on these issues: jasonwsmoore@gmail.com. Special thanks to a precious group of friends and colleagues who encouraged this line of thinking: Giovanni Arrighi, Henry Bernstein, Ben Brewer, Dan Buck, Edmund Burke III, Brett Clark, Barbara Epstein, John Bellamy Foster, Harriet Friedmann, Diana C. Gildea, Alf Hornborg, Shiloh Krupar, Jessica C. Marx, MacKenzie K. L. Moore, Dale Tomich, Richard A. Walker, and Michael Watts. Ecological Crises and the Agrarian Question in World-Historical Perspective