David Harvey

This new book is a dynamic re-working of Marx in an attempt to analyse the changing face of globe capitalism and the last seven years of economic crisis, and to provide a framework for a political alternative.

Taking Marx's conception of the dialectic, that is the internal dynamic that drives change, Harvey examines what he sees as the seventeen key contradictions of capitalism; dividing them into foundational contradictions, moving contradictions, and dangerous contradictions.

The Marxist geographer and social theorist David Harvey has become something of a sensation on the left in recent years. The onset of the economic crisis has led to a renewed interest in Marx's ideas and Harvey has been the focal point of this re-engagement for many radicalising young intellectuals.

The last 30 years, to put it bluntly, have not been the most favourable for people interested in Marxist ideas and politics. The seeming triumph of neoliberalism, particularly after the downfall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War, pushed Marxist thought increasingly to the fringes of academic and public debates alike. However, this dire picture has changed radically following the onset of financial crisis in late 2007.

In January New York based academic David Harvey spoke at a packed London School of Economics public lecture to promote his latest book, A Brief History of Neo-Liberalism. He set out, with characteristic precision, the story of three decades of assaults carried out by a global ruling class. These attacks, made in the name of neo-liberalism, have seen growing social polarisation, the rise of new elites and the impoverishment of many of those at the bottom of society.