




































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 4 (2): 173-176, July 2021 

 

BOOK REVIEW 

Ecology and Socialism to Ecosocialism: Roots and 
Branches 

Nandan Nawn1 

John Bellamy Foster. 2020. The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology. New 
York, Monthly Review Press. ISBN 978-158367-836-7 (cloth); pp. 687; $35 

(HB), ₹3,447 (HB). 

 

Sustainable development discourse 
attempts to manage trade-offs between 
the triad of the social (poverty and 
equity), ecological (natural resources), 
and economic (growth) (Munasinghe 
1993). In contrast, ecosocialism 
discourse sets up a dialogue between 
social equity and ecological 
sustainability. In The Return of Nature, 
leading Marxist scholar on 
environmental politics John Bellamy 
Foster traces the deep intellectual roots 
that have shaped the ecosocialism 
project. In elegantly outlining the 
challenge, the author captures an 
interesting discursive turn, which is 
that. 

                                                        
1 Professor, Department of Policy Studies, TERI School of Advanced Studies, 10 Vasant 
Kunj Institutional Area, New Delhi 110070, India; nnletter@gmail.com. 

Copyright © Nawn 2021. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 

4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 

Growth, University 

Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  
ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.523  

mailto:nnletter@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v4i2.523


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [174] 

the old notion of the “conquest of nature” is being replaced by a radical 
conception of the need to restore the human social metabolism with nature 
while promoting genuine human equality. Although revolutionary in its 
challenge to capitalism, this conception is not new, rather it is traceable to 
the long struggle for socialism and ecology beginning in the nineteenth 
century. (p. 7) 

The Return of Nature will especially interest those who are keen to understand 
the intellectual journeys of “numerous socialists and radical materialists” (p. 
12), including those in the natural sciences, such as “Fabian-style socialist 
ecologist” Arthur Tansley (p. 8); “red scientists” JD Bernal, JBS Haldane, 
Joseph Needham, and Hyman Levy (p. 8); “left Darwinian” E Ray 
Lankester (p. 7); and “radical humanist” Lancelot Hogben (p. 334).  

The common thread that runs through the book is the focus on how these 
socialist thinkers explored the “dialectical interpenetration of nature and 
society, and the complex relations of evolution and emergence” (p. 8). As 
Foster points out, their varied ideas and imaginations could be boiled down 
to arguments for a strong version of dialectical naturalism, a framework that 
was arguably a precursor to today’s notions of systems ecology and earth 
system analysis. 

Part I comprises four chapters, in which ideas are traced directly to the 
oeuvre of Karl Marx. The first chapter explores the writings of E Ray 
Lankester—a protégé of Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin— who 
coined the term bionomics while carrying out an ecological analysis that 
went on to influence British science. Chapter 2 looks at the works of artist, 
craftsman, and poet William Morris, who was greatly inspired by the 
English Romantic movement. We are reminded here that the 
“estrangement of art and labor” (p. 76)  and “alienation of nature” (p. 76) 
are dominant themes in Morris’ work. Morris was closely associated with 
the working-class movement as “designer, artisan, and manufacturer” (p. 
105). He remains in focus in the third and fourth chapters as well, but as 
leader of the Socialist League, which was made up of different shades of 
socialists, Marxists, and even anarchists. Of note is Foster’s insight on 
Morris’ many efforts towards assembling revolutionary possibilities for 
creating a “socialist/communist society” (p. 150) that could resolve a chain 
of tensions between “town and country (the ecological problem), work and 
art (social labor), and men and women (gender relations)” (p. 150).  

Part II is composed of three chapters that discuss Friedrich Engels’ ideas 
on the environment and health conditions of the working class. This sets 
the stage for elaborating on his ecological worldview, which underlined “the 
intrinsic value of nature and hence the tragedy of its estrangement under 



[175] Nandan Nawn 

capitalism” (p. 179). In the fifth and sixth chapters, Foster takes the reader 
on a fascinating journey that recounts Engels’ numerous studies on the 
environmental conditions of the working class that helped him to 
substantiate his theoretical understanding of what he terms the dialectics of 
nature. In contrast, the seventh chapter focuses on Engels’ more scientific 
deliberations on the probable role that labour might have played in 
effecting the transition from ape to man. Through a study of Engels, Foster 
draws several telling comparisons with Marx’s political economic works.  

Part III takes up ideas and works that help to elaborate on Engels’ 
ecological insights. With Arthur Tansley as chief protagonist, Foster traces 
the roots of ecosystem analysis in the eighth chapter. This part is an 
ecologist’s delight. It gives us a close-up view of the debates on 
“materialism versus idealism” (p. 322) and pedagogic matters in the 
teaching of ecology. Chapter 9 traces the influence of critical ideas 
contained in the Science at the Cross Roads, a collection of papers by Nikolai 
Bukharin, AF Joffe, I Vavilov, and Boris Hessen on Bernal, Haldane, and 
Needham, the “red scientists” in Britain. Foster describes the volume as “an 
extraordinarily audacious set of investigations into the complexity and 
dynamism of natural processes—along with the developing rifts in the 
human relation to nature” (p. 372).   

Chapter 11, aptly titled “A Science for the People”, and the epilogue follow 
a ground-up approach in dissecting movements that were “new forms of 
struggle devoted to anti-racism, anti-imperialism, peace, and the promotion 
of a global human ecology” (p. 457). Here, the author offers a brief history 
of structures and struggles within a vast array of organizations in this realm, 
such as Society for Freedom in Science; Committee for Cultural Freedom; 
Committee for Nuclear Information; Committee for Environmental 
Information; and Committee for Nuclear Disarmament— on either side of 
the Atlantic in Britain and in the US. As expected, the focus is on the 
“environmentalism” of the Global North; it primarily looks at matters 
related to pollution rather than struggles associated with access to resources 
of natural origin that lead to environmental distribution conflicts in the 
Global South, lucidly captured in Gadgil and Guha (1995). 

In broad methodological terms, Foster suggests that the book essentially 
weaves art and science and orients the reader towards a more genealogical 
style of exploring causes. Despite these striking analyses of the current 
environmental predicament, the notion of “sustainable human 
development” is given too little attention and wants for rigorous conceptual 
treatment.  



Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [176] 

Finally, some words on presentation. The copyediting could have been 
more meticulous. For example, the fact of E Ray Lankester was president 
of the Marine Biological Association was repeated on pages 58 and 303; in 
one, the association’s year of establishment is mentioned as 1884 while it is 
1883 in the other. Similarly, the information that Ernst Haeckel introduced 
the term ecology in 1866 is repeated on pages 13 and 305. In other words, 
there is a rushed feel to the production of the book, which somewhat 
diminishes the value of an otherwise commendable effort. Foster’s earlier 
works have been inspiring and compelling for their insights and the fact 
that he places writings on socialism and of Karl Marx within the larger field 
of ecological politics. The Return of Nature, however, does not always live up 
to its promise.  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

I acknowledge the comments from the book review editor that substantially 
improved readability. 
 

REFERENCES 

Foster, John Bellamy. 2000. Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature. New York: 
Monthly Review Press. 

Gadgil, Madhav, and Ramachandra Guha. 1995. Ecology and Equity: The Use and 
Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India. London and New York: Routledge.  

Munasinghe, Mohan. 1993. “Environmental Economics and Sustainable 
Development.” World Bank Environment Paper No. 3. Washington DC: World Bank. 


