Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism

Richard Robbins received his Ph.D. in anthropology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has spent his entire teaching career at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.  Some of his most formative academic experiences include field research among Cree, Inuit and Naskapi First Nations peoples of Canada, Acadian farmers and fisherfolk in New Brunswick, Canada, and among religious communal societies in the United States.  A research semester at the Science Studies Unit at the University of Edinburgh would count as one of his most stimulating intellectual experiences.    He has received the State University of New York’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the American Anthropological Association/McGraw-Hill Teacher of the Year Award.  He appeared also in the hit anti-globalization documentary, The Yes Men.  He is currently SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at Plattsburgh, and maintains a global problems website at www.plattsburgh.edu/legacy and a general website at faculty.plattsburgh.edu/richard.robbins.  He can be contacted by email at richard.robbins@plattsburgh.edu.  

In this section:

1) Brief Table of Content

2) Full Table of Contents

BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

PART 1 - Introduction: The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist, and the Nation-State in the Society of Perpetual Growth 

Chapter 1: Constructing the Consumer 

Chapter 2: The Laborer in the Culture of Capitalism 

Chapter 3: The Rise and Fall of the Merchant, Industrialist, and Financier 

Chapter 4: The Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism 

 

PART 2 - The Global Impact of the Culture of Capitalism: Introduction 

Chapter 5: Population Growth, Migration, and Urbanization 

Chapter 6: Hunger, Poverty, and Economic Development 

Chapter 7: Environment and Consumption 

Chapter 8: Health and Disease 

Chapter 9: Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Conflict 

 

PART 3 - Resistance and Rebellion: Introduction 

Chapter 10: Peasant Protest, Rebellion, and Resistance 

Chapter 11: Anti-Systemic Protest 

Chapter 12: Religion and Anti-Systemic Protest 

Chapter 13: Solving Global Problems: Some Solutions and Courses of Action

 

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS

 





PART 1 - Introduction: The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist, and the Nation-State in the Society of Perpetual Growth 

 A Primer on Money: The Philosopher’s Stone 

 

Chapter 1: Constructing the Consumer 

 Remaking Consumption

 Kinderculture in America: The Child as Consumer 

 Exporting the Consumer 

 

Chapter 2: The Laborer in the Culture of Capitalism 

 A Primer on the Elements of Capitalism 

 The Construction and Anatomy of the Working Class 



Chapter 3: The Rise and Fall of the Merchant, Industrialist, and Financier 

 The Era of the Global Trader 

 The Era of the Industrialist 

 The Era of the Corporation, the Multilateral Institution, and the Capital Speculator 

 The “Second Great Contraction” 

  

Chapter 4: The Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism 

 The Origin and History of the State 

 Constructing the Nation-State 

 Spin, Free Trade, and the Role of Energy in the Global Economy 

 

PART 2 - The Global Impact of the Culture of Capitalism: Introduction 

 A Primer on Market Externalities: Polanyi’s Paradox 

 

Chapter 5: Population Growth, Migration, and Urbanization 

 The Malthusians Versus the Revisionists 

 Demographic Transition Theory 

 Population Growth in the Periphery 

 Issues of Immigration

 

Chapter 6: Hunger, Poverty, and Economic Development 

 The Evolution of Food Production: From the Neolithic to the Neocaloric

 The Politics of Hunger 

 Solutions and Adaptations to Poverty and Hunger 

 

Chapter 7: Environment and Consumption 

 The Case of Sugar 

 The Story of Beef 

 Creating a Taste for Beef

 The Impact of Production On The Environment: The Effects of Climate Change

 

Chapter 8: Health and Disease 

 A Primer on How to Die from an Infectious Disease 

 The Relationship between Culture and Disease 

 AIDS and the Culture of Capitalism 

 

Chapter 9: Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Conflict 

 The Fate of Indigenous Peoples 

 The Guaraní: The Economics of Ethnocide 

 Disadvantaged Majorities and Their Revenge 

  

PART 3 - Resistance and Rebellion: Introduction 

 A Primer on Terrorism 

 

Chapter 10: Peasant Protest, Rebellion, and Resistance 

 Malaysia and the Weapons of the Weak 

 Kikuyu and the Mau Mau Rebellion 

 The Rebellion in Chiapas 

 

Chapter 11: Anti-Systemic Protest 

 Protest as Anti-Systemic: The Two World Revolutions 

 The Protests of Labor: Coal Miners in Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania 

 Global Feminist Resistance 

 Direct Action and Occupy Wall Street

 

Chapter 12: Religion and Anti-Systemic Protest 

 Indigenous Religious Movements as Anti-Systemic Protest 

 The Global Challenge of Anti-Systemic Religious Protest 

 “Terror in the Mind of God” 

 

Chapter 13: Solving Global Problems: Some Solutions and Courses of Action

 The Central Dilemma of Growth

 Things We Could Do