HOW the World Works author Paul Cockshott, with his background in computer science and Marxist economics,  is well placed to put economic computability into historical materialism and he does so through his account of the historical progression from pre-class society through slave, peasant, capitalist and socialist economies to a consideration of what sort of constraints will define the economies of the future.

Throughout, the author uses the abstractions of technology and population to make quantitative assessments of what was necessary and what was possible in a given society. At each point, he asks what technology was available, how much could it achieve, how many people did it require and how many could it feed and house?

With its quantitative proofs and technological awareness, the book is an antidote to the humanities-based “socialism in one head” approach of the liberal and idealist left. Yet it remains accessible to the general reader, since its content is neatly presented, packaged and clearly introduced and explained.

As an interdisciplinary development of historical materialism, it has a lot to offer any reader on the left.

How the World Works: The Story of Human Labor from Prehistory to the Modern Day is published by Monthly Review Press, £25.

Paul Cockshott is leading a Zoom discussion on Socialist Economic Planning: Theory and Practice for the Edinburgh Branch of the Communist Party of Britain today at 8.30pm. To attend, register at eventbrite.co.uk/e/115117042172.