cover image El Fin del Capitalismo Global: El Nuevo Proyecto Historico = The End of Global Capitalism

El Fin del Capitalismo Global: El Nuevo Proyecto Historico = The End of Global Capitalism

Heinz Dieterich. Grupo Oceano, $22.95 (176pp) ISBN 978-970-651-271-0

As an invitation to work for social change and a primer on capitalism's Third World impact, this well-integrated set of six essays scrutinizes global economic realities and suggests new possibilities. It aims to be a proto-manifesto and a catalyst for discussion and action; its topic is economics, but the language is accessible, intended to reach the popular audience that this and previous best-selling sister editions (e.g., El fin del capitalismo, The End of Captialiam, Editorial 21, 1998) have indeed reached in much of Latin America. Some readers might long for more academic rigor only one essay includes endnotes, and we are often expected to take statistical assertions on faith. Nonetheless, the contributors all bring important credentials to the task, as scientists, philosophers, and policy analysts. For example, Dieterich, a friend of and frequent collaborator with Noam Chomsky, has 25 years' experience in Mexico as a professor at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco (UAMX) and as a social justice advocate; and scientist Arno Peters is known for his 1974 design of the Peters Projection, a world map that remedies Mercator's vast Eurocentric territorial exaggerations. Though the central premise that capitalism can be upended appears quixotic, the writers' emphasis on praxis and their acknowledgment of popular movements that have garnered worldwide attention in recent years convincingly carry the message that significant action is within the reach of the marginalized majority. Recommended for all public libraries, some academic libraries, and large bookstores. Bruce Jensen, UCLA Graduate Sch. of Latin American Studies and Information Studies