Author: Cynthia Kaufman<br />File Type: pdf<br />Getting Past Capitalism begins with a critique of the impacts of capitalism on human society and the environment. By taking a fresh look at what capitalism is and at how it is reproduced, it is able to offer realistic and inspiring ways to move beyond capitalism to already existing alternatives. **Review The global Great Recession and the deepening climate crisis have made abundantly clear that capitalism is on a collision course with human and ecological well-being. The difficult question is what to do about it? Getting Past Capitalism is filled with rich insights and fresh proposals for answering that question. Cynthia Kaufman writes clearly and powerfully, offering readers, as her subtitle promises, history, vision, and hope. (Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts-Amherst) A powerful, instructive and moving guide to the many avenues of systemic challenge and positive movement-building energies and strategies now emerging around the world. (Gar Alperovitz, author of America Beyond Capitalism) Expresses in clear, concise language thoughts that likely have been bumping around in the minds of many of us who reject capitalism. The book is particularly powerful because of its modesty Kaufman promises no new grand theory and instead offers insights that we all can use in our daily lives. (NationofChange) About the Author Cynthia Kaufman is the director of the Institute of Community and Civic Engagement at De Anza College, where she also teaches philosophy. Getting Past Capitalism begins with a critique of the impacts of capitalism on human society and the environment. It looks in new ways at what capitalism is and at how it is reproduced. That investigation opens the door to fresh ways of looking at how to challenge it. Cynthia Kaufman looks at some fundamental questions about how capitalism comes to look like a system that is unbeatable, and how people come to have desires that work to reinforce capitalism. Kaufman uses this analysis to develop ideas about how to challenge capitalism. She argues that rather than looking for the fulcrum point in a system that will make it able to be overthrown, we should try to understand what kinds of practices open more spaces for stopping the reproduction of capitalist processes, and what kinds of structures need to be developed to make capitalism a less important part of our world. Getting Past Capitalism includes a critique of capitalism and presentation of alternatives to capitalism, many of which already exist. It explores strategies for developing and strengthening those alternatives.