A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things

Patel and Moore begin by critiquing the concept of the “Anthropocene”—a proposed new geological epoch defined by the profound impact of human activity on the planet’s ecosystems and climate. They argue that this term is problematic because it suggests that the current environmental crisis is the result of an undifferentiated humanity, rather than the specific logic and practices of capitalism. As an alternative, they propose the concept of the “Capitalocene” to highlight how the development of capitalism over the past five centuries has been the primary driver of planetary-scale environmental change.

To illustrate this argument, the authors trace the origins of the Capitalocene back to the crisis of feudalism in late medieval Europe. They describe how the Medieval Warm Period, a climate anomaly that lasted from around 950 to 1250 CE, initially led to population growth, agricultural expansion, and the rise of towns and cities across Europe. However, this period of relative stability was followed by the onset of the Little Ice Age in the 14th century. Patel and Moore argue that this abrupt climate change, combined with the rigid class structure of feudalism and the devastating impact of the Black Death, resulted in a series of crises that ultimately unraveled the feudal system.