RETHINking capitalism on a burning planet

A SALON WITH Alessandro Stanziani

Salon / Ideas | Tues 8 Dec | 6.30-8.30pm

*Doors open at 6.30pm. The speaker will start at 7pm.

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Join us for a rare opportunity to hear historian Alessandro Stanziani discuss Earth Capital, his sweeping new history of capitalism - one that finally puts the planet itself at the centre of the story.

For eight centuries, Stanziani argues, capitalism has run on two engines of exploitation: coerced human labour and what he calls 'Earth capital' - the land, fossil fuels, and natural resources we've mined, farmed, and burned in pursuit of growth. As forced labour receded after 1870, our plunder of the planet accelerated at a breakneck pace, bringing us to the ecological reckoning we face today.

Stanziani's investigations journey from Russia to the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean to France, weaving calories, energy, labour, and law into one urgent, unified narrative. However, he doesn't just diagnose the crisis. He makes the case for a radical new social contract built on democracy, equality, and environmental sustainability. 

This new genre of 'total history' provides an essential viewpoint for anyone debating humanity's future. Come hear the ideas and join the conversation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Alessandro Stanziani is a social and economic historian at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. He has written numerous books on the history of bonded labour, the history of capitalism, global history, food history.

GOOD READS

Earth Capital: The Long History of Capitalism and Its Aftermath (2025); Les Entrelacements Du Monde: Histoire globale, pensée globale (2024); Les Guerres Du Blé: Une éco-histoire écologique et géopolitique (2024) Labor on the Fringes of Empire: Voice, Exit and Law (2018); After Oriental Despotism, Eurasian Growth in a global perspective (2014); Sailors, Slaves, and Immigrants (2014).