Nature, Money, Work, Care, Food, Energy, and Lives. These are the seven things that have made our world and will continue to shape its future. By making these things cheap, modern commerce has controlled, transformed, and devastated the Earth.In A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things, Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore present a new approach to analyzing today's planetary emergencies. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate how throughout history, crises have always provided fresh opportunities to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism.At a time of crisis for all these seven cheap things, innovative systemic thinking is urgently required. This book proposes a radical new way of understanding—and reclaiming—the planet in the turbulent twenty-first century.'One of the most important works of political economy you'll ever read.' —Mark Bittman'Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore have transformed 'cheapness' into a brilliant and original lens that helps us understand the most pressing crises of our time. As we come together to build a better world, this book could well become a defining framework to broaden and deepen our ambitions.' —Naomi Klein, author of No Is Not Enough and This Changes Everything 'An eye-opening account that helps us see the startling reality behind what we usually dismiss as the obvious and everyday.' —Bill McKibben'A compelling interpretation of how we got to where we are now and how we might go on to create a more just and sustainable civilization. It's a vision you can put to use.' —Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars trilogy'Patel and Moore have provided not only an elegantly written and insightful narrative but also a path to imagining a noncapitalist future.' —Roxanne Dunbar-Oritz, author of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States 'A powerful, well-argued, passionate counterpoint to the belief that we have transited to a post-capitalist world.' —Silvia Federici, author of Caliban and the Witch