A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction-Chapter 1

Chapters 2-3

Chapters 4-5

Chapter 6-Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 4-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary: “Cheap Care”

Patel and Moore explore the concept of “cheap care” and its fundamental role in the formation and perpetuation of capitalism’s world ecology. They contend that the establishment of the modern household and the “domestication” of women were crucial for supplying the unpaid reproductive labor necessary to support the capitalist system. The authors draw upon a wide range of historical examples, from early colonial encounters to the development of property law and the invention of the category of “woman” in colonial contexts, to illustrate how gender, sexuality, and power were interwoven in the creation of capitalism’s ecology.

Patel and Moore commence their analysis by examining early colonial encounters, particularly those of Christopher Columbus, and how the European colonizers imposed their notions of gender, sexuality, and power on Indigenous populations. They emphasize the suppression of Indigenous sexualities, such as the Spanish colonists’ scandalized reactions to Mayan sexual practices, and the enforcement of European norms. The authors also highlight how the language of sex and sexuality was used to describe the acquisition of resources and the conquest of virgin lands, demonstrating how the transformation of the planet under the reign of property was likened to a sexual conquest.

Patel and Moore discuss the role of the plough in shaping gender relations and the division of labor under capitalism. They argue that the adoption of the plough in agricultural societies was not merely a technological shift but also a transformative moment in social and ecological relations. Drawing on a study published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Patel and Moore note that societies with a history of plough agriculture tend to have greater gender inequality, even when controlling for factors such as religion, income level, and the presence of warfare.

The authors suggest that this persistent gender inequality can be traced back to the ways in which the plough reshaped labor relations and land tenure systems. Patel and Moore argue that the use of the plough favored the cultivation of large, contiguous fields and the development of private property regimes. This shift undermined earlier forms of communal land tenure and women’s access to resources. As plough agriculture became increasingly centered on male labor, women were relegated to subordinate positions within the household and the wider economy. The authors link the rise of the plough to the emergence of the “Great Domestication,” a process whereby women were increasingly confined to the domestic sphere and their labor devalued.

The Great Domestication involved the confinement of some humans, particularly women, to new social and ecological units called “households.” They argue that this process was facilitated by the enclosure of common lands, which forced peasants to become wage workers and set women and men into competition in the labor market. Patel and Moore trace the origins of the modern wage gap to the gendered division of labor that emerged in the fields, with women’s work being devalued and confined to specific seasons. The authors contend that the modern household and its gendered division of labor emerged through these shifts in the economic geography of care and production, rendering women’s work incompatible with the new capitalist agricultures.

Patel and Moore assert that the establishment of the modern household required not only economic changes but also the schooling and disciplining of men and women in their new roles. This was achieved through various means, including instruction manuals that promoted the submission of women to men within the household, legal systems that reinforced patriarchal authority, and the use of force and violence, particularly against women who resisted the new order. The authors provide examples of how women who were declared heretics and witches were subjected to public torture as a form of pedagogy to enforce compliance with the new ways of behavior.

The authors also discuss the role of property law, particularly the concept of coverture, in reinforcing women’s subordinate status within marriage. Under coverture, a married woman’s person and property were placed under her husband’s authority. Patel and Moore note how the need to protect bourgeois women’s wealth led to the development of legal and financial instruments, such as contracts that allowed widows to prepare for their financial security, which contributed to the growth of modern high finance. They also highlight how unmarried bourgeois women’s access to money enabled them to participate in speculative transactions, albeit to a limited extent.

Patel and Moore then turn to the invention of the juridical category of “woman” in colonial contexts, using the example of the British colonization of Nigeria. They argue that the creation of this category was central to the imposition of colonial power and the transformation of domestic arrangements. The authors cite the work of Oyěwùmí, who notes that there were no “women” in Yorùbá society until recently and that the creation of women as a category was one of the first “accomplishments” of the colonial states (128). This invention of “women” was accompanied by the exclusion of women from state structures and the transformation of state power into male-gender power (128).

The authors also examine the cultural foundations for the understanding of women as closer to nature, tracing it back to the transatlantic enslavement of African women. They discuss how female enslaved people were treated as financial instruments for generating more enslaved people, with some women in Barbados in the 1650s being designated as “increasers,” whose perceived “natural” skills in child-rearing were exploited. Patel and Moore highlight how these ideas of enslaved women’s fecundity and predisposition to raise children found their way into advertisements for enslaved women sold to white bourgeois families looking for domestic workers.

The chapter concludes by looking at the persistence of gender inequality and the devaluation of care work in the modern world, despite overall improvements in women’s status. The authors argue that the demand for housework to be paid, as advocated by the 1970s Wages for Housework campaign, is a radical response to the fundamental devaluation of care work. However, they also acknowledge that psychological liberation cannot be achieved simply by paying housewives a wage, as pointed out by Angela Davis.

Patel and Moore suggest that more collective approaches, such as the welfare state’s management of care, have delivered meaningful gains for the working classes but have not necessarily led to freedom from care work. They emphasize the importance of political struggle in recognizing, rewarding, and reducing care work, particularly in the face of neoliberalism and right-wing economic nationalism. The authors conclude by suggesting that the success of the struggles for the recognition and compensation of care work would signal the end of cheap nature and a shift toward valuations based on care work rather than exploitation, ultimately pointing toward a world after capitalism.

Chapter 5 Summary: “Cheap Food”

Patel and Moore trace the long and complex history of capitalism’s reliance on “cheap food” to sustain its system of cheap labor and care. They argue that this model, which has been in place for centuries, has had far-reaching and often devastating consequences for the global environment, human health, and social inequality.

The authors begin by discussing the early days of European colonialism in the Americas, when figures like Christopher Columbus were more interested in the potential profits that could be derived from new crops and foodstuffs than in the food itself. They note how Columbus paid far more attention to the potential returns from the sale of new plants than to the sustenance he consumed on his voyages, setting the stage for a long history of colonialist exploitation.

Patel and Moore then fast-forward to the English Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century, which saw dramatic increases in food production thanks to a combination of new technologies, crop rotations, and the enclosure of common lands. This process allowed for the expulsion of peasants from the land, creating a new class of urban wage laborers who were dependent on the market for their sustenance. However, the authors note that this system eventually began to stall in the mid-18th century, leading to rising food prices and social unrest across Europe. They cite examples such as the French Revolution of 1789, which was sparked in part by high bread prices, and the English food riots of the same period.

The authors then turn to the crucial role played by European imperialism in securing cheap food for the metropole, often at great cost to the colonies themselves. They cite examples such as the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s, during which Ireland continued to export large quantities of grain to England even as its own population starved, and the forced cultivation of cash crops like opium in India, which was used to fund British imperial expansion. Patel and Moore argue that these policies were essential for feeding Europe’s growing urban population and preventing social revolution, but they also highlight the devastating human toll they took on colonized peoples.

Moving into the 20th century, Patel and Moore discuss how fears of communist revolt led to new attempts to secure cheap food for the masses, particularly in the developing world. They focus on the Green Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, which was funded by American foundations like the Rockefeller Foundation and sought to increase agricultural yields through the use of new crop varieties, fertilizers, and pesticides. While the Green Revolution was successful in boosting food production in many parts of the world, the authors argue that it did little to reduce hunger and malnutrition and that it had devastating environmental and social consequences, including the displacement of small farmers, the depletion of soil and water resources, and the increased use of toxic chemicals.

Patel and Moore then turn to the rise of industrial meat production in the late 20th century, which they link to the development of global commodity markets and the displacement of peasant farmers in the developing world. They note how the United States in particular has promoted the expansion of industrial animal agriculture through trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which they argue has led to the destruction of small-scale farming in countries like Mexico. The authors also highlight the environmental and health costs of this system, including its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. They note how industrial meat production relies heavily on cheap immigrant labor in the United States, linking it to broader patterns of exploitation and inequality.

Finally, Patel and Moore argue that capitalism’s long-standing cheap food regime is now under existential threat from climate change, which is already leading to declining agricultural yields and is expected to have increasingly devastating impacts in the coming decades. They note that climate change is expected to hit agriculture particularly hard, with yields potentially declining by as much as 50% in some regions by the end of the century. The authors suggest that this represents a fundamental challenge to capitalism’s model of endless growth and accumulation, which has long relied on the availability of cheap food and other resources.

Chapters 4-5 Analysis

Across these chapters, Patel and Moore employ a range of rhetorical devices to build their arguments, challenge conventional narratives, and invite readers to think differently about capitalism’s history and future trajectories.

Patel and Moore often use historical irony to challenge triumphalist narratives of capitalist “progress.” Describing the Green Revolution’s much-vaunted gains in agricultural productivity, they note drily, “The political commitment to make food cheap through state subsidy and violence worked” (150). This ironic inversion highlights the real forces underpinning the Green Revolution’s “success,” emphasizing the human and ecological costs obscured by mainstream accounts. Patel and Moore’s use of irony serves to disrupt conventional narratives about capitalism’s cheap food regime. Patel and Moore thus craft a counternarrative to mainstream histories of capitalism—one that brings its underlying logic of exploitation into focus.

Patel and Moore also explore the processes of exploitation that underscore the material stakes of their analysis. In the chapter on cheap care, the authors describe the “disciplining” of women’s bodies under capitalism in graphic terms: “Transforming women’s bodies into compliant machines of reproduction took force and fear and social policing” (120). This language insists on the corporeal realities behind the abstract category of “reproductive labor.” By conjuring the physical violence involved in enforcing the gendered division of labor, Patel and Moore argue that this was a process of expropriation inscribed on the terrain of women’s bodies. In this way, the authors’ literary style works in tandem with their analytical framework to illuminate the exploitation and expropriation that conventional accounts of capitalist development often elide.

A central theme running through these chapters is Patel and Moore’s critique of The Conceptual Divide Between Nature and Society that underpins mainstream understandings of capitalism. The authors argue that this dualism obscures the ways in which capitalism’s exploitation of human and non-human natures are inextricably linked. In their account, the cheap care provided by women’s unpaid labor is premised on the same logic of expropriation that drives the extraction of cheap natures in the form of fertile soils, mineral resources, and enslaved labor. By insisting on the interconnectedness of these processes, Patel and Moore attempt to reconceive the relationship between the social and the ecological and to recognize how capitalism’s apparent dynamism is predicated on the devaluation and appropriation of both human and non-human “work.” This theme underscores the authors’ central contention that capitalism is not simply an economic system but an ecological regime that transforms and reshapes the entire web of life.

In Chapter 4, Patel and Moore employ the plough as an embodiment of the complex interplay between technological change, social relations, and ecological transformation in the development of capitalism. The plough serves as a multifaceted symbol that encapsulates key themes of the chapter and the book as a whole. On one level, the plough functions as a metonym for the broader process of agricultural intensification and the emergence of private property regimes. By linking the plough to the enclosure of common lands and the rise of male-dominated, intensive agriculture, Patel and Moore use this everyday object to concretize the abstract processes of capital accumulation and ecological change. The plough becomes a tangible embodiment of the cheap nature strategy that lies at the heart of capitalism’s ecology.

Moreover, the association they offer between the plough and the “Great Domestication” of women renders visible the often-obscured connections between technological change, ecological transformation, and the exploitation of women’s labor. The authors also employ the plough to illustrate how this technological object represents the wider array of “cheapening” strategies that have sustained capitalism’s development. By tracing the long-term impacts of the plough on gender relations and the organization of labor, Patel and Moore depict this humble tool as emblematic of the broader logics of expropriation and devaluation that underpin capitalism's ecology.

Finally, the plough functions as an ironic symbol of “progress” in Patel and Moore’s account. While conventional narratives often present the adoption of the plough as a hallmark of agricultural advancement and civilizational development, the authors’ analysis reveals the regressive social and ecological consequences of this technological shift, thus further emphasizing the enduring legacies of exploitation and inequality that have accompanied what they regard as capitalism’s cheap nature strategy.

Another key theme in these chapters is Capitalism’s Dependence on Frontiers and perpetual expansion. Patel and Moore argue that capitalism’s dynamism is predicated on the ongoing discovery and appropriation of new sources of cheap nature, from fertile land and mineral deposits to exploitable human populations. In their account, the successive agricultural revolutions that have sustained capitalism’s growth have been premised on the colonization of new territories and the displacement of Indigenous peoples. Similarly, they argue that the cheap care provided by women’s unpaid labor has been made possible by the enclosure of the commons and the creation of new domains of “unpaid work.” This theme highlights the inherently expansionist character of capitalism, as its survival depends on the perpetual identification and incorporation of new frontiers for exploitation.

Throughout the chapter, Patel and Moore emphasize the interconnectedness of food, labor, and the environment under capitalism, arguing that the drive for cheap food has led to the displacement of peasant farmers, the exploitation of workers, and the degradation of the natural world. In doing so, they draw attention to How Capitalism Affects the Web of Life. They draw on a wide range of historical examples to illustrate these connections, from the early days of European colonialism to the present-day impacts of industrial agriculture and climate change. While their tone is unambiguously critical of capitalism and its ecological consequences, Patel and Moore also seek to highlight the ingenuity and resilience of the peasant farmers, Indigenous peoples, and workers who have resisted these processes over the centuries, offering glimpses of alternative ways of organizing food systems and human societies. Overall, their analysis invites readers to rethink the way humans produce and consume food in the face of mounting social and environmental crises.