Testimonials

The collapse of capitalism will also be an end to money as the prime regulator of society — an eventuality both hard to imagine and necessary to understand. Anitra Nelson and Frans Timmerman have assembled an indispensable collection for those who are bold enough to explore this dramatic prospect. Life Without Money is an essential guidebook for the great debate now unfolding and around which our hopes for a worthwhile future unfold.

Joel Kovel, author of Enemy of Nature (2002; 2007) and Overcoming Zionism (Pluto Press, 2007)

A timely contribution to an under-researched and under-reported area of economics: the theory of money and proposals for alternatives to the globalised capitalist financial system. I would recommend it to anyone interested in finding ways to develop an economy that functions without money.

Molly Scott Cato, Reader in Green Economics in the Cardiff School of Management, Director of the Cardiff Institute for Cooperative Studies, and prominent member of the UK Green Party

The premise of this book is that capitalism is collapsing. It has been described as a contemporary field guide to non-market socialism. It’s fantastic for change agents because it goes right back looking at some of the very first people who discussed these ideas. It summarises history and thinking on theses issues so that we can look at how to move forward.

Elisabeth Bastian, CEO of Varuna: The Writer's House, Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia at the Blue Mountains launch 28 January 2012

 

It is certainly refreshing to come across a book that deals seriously with the idea of a world without money... the volume as a whole offers a refreshing look at alternatives to capitalism.

'PB' Gifts and giving. [Book review] Socialist Standard 1291, March 2012

 

[T]his is a timely book, reconsidering  some classic themes in a contemporary context focused on alternatives to money. Eleven chapters explore a range of interesting and important themes, loosely divided into critiques of capitalism and consumerism, and activism and experiments... There are helpful introductory and concluding chapters by the editors. Although all chapters are clear and easily understood by the non-specialist reader, the discussions are also likely to be valuable refreshers for professional students of political economy…

[My] comments indicate the valuable discussion issues that this book sets up. If the planet’s ecological and social systems continue their accelerating collapse we are soon going to have to confront the task of building new and very different systems, and central among the decisions to be made will be those to do with the nature and role of money. The book does a good job of stimulating thought about these issues.

 

 

Ted Trainer [Book review] Australian Options 69, forthcoming 2012

 

I was very impressed with your book. As the struggle for sustainability continues it becomes more evident that ecological socialism is the only path for humanity and other species as well.

Jack Mundey, famous Australian union and environmental activist, who led the Sydney Green Bans in Australia during the 1970, letterto co-editors

[A]n important contribution to the discussion we all (world wide) must have about the ‘economics’ of survival of life as we enjoy it on the planet. Despite our best efforts, under the present worldwide economic system, with ever increasing use of resources and energy to continue a physically impossible pursuit of individual profit and power on a planet of finite resources, a significant proportion of life on the planet will not survive. Will a few human survivors struggle to exist on Antarctica with a greatly reduced diversity of other life forms, as Lovelock has suggested?

How we change from an aggressive, competitive society (the survival of the fittest) to a co-operative mutually supportive society, survival of the species best able to fit into the finite environment — the fitting[in]est as Karl Henrik-Robèrt suggested Darwin really meant, rather than the fittest — is the issue explored in this book. I think it is an important book for people of any (or no) political persuasion. It is addressing the dilemma of humankind.

Moss Cass, Member of the Australian Parliament (25 October 1969 to 4 February 1983) and Minister for the Environment and Conservation in the Whitlam government, current Patron of the Sustainable Living Foundation (Australia), 7 April 2012 — email to co-editors