Less is More
Jason Hickel
How Degrowth Will Save the World
Summary – English Oral Exam
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6
Exam: June 22nd
1
, Chapter 1 – Capitalism: A Creation Story
Summary
Hickel opens with a provocative claim: the ecological crisis is not a human problem — it is a
capitalist problem. Humans have lived on Earth for 300,000 years, and only in the last few
centuries, precisely when capitalism emerged, did things begin to spiral out of control. Hickel
therefore rejects the term Anthropocene ('age of humans') and replaces it with his own: the
Capitalocene — the age of capitalism.
He then tells a largely forgotten story. In the 14th and 15th centuries, ordinary people across
Europe rose up against feudalism. After the Black Death (1347) wiped out a third of Europe's
population, labour became scarce and peasants gained real bargaining power: higher
wages, lower rents, and greater freedom. Historians call the period 1350–1500 the 'golden
age of the European proletariat'. Even the environment improved — forests regrew and soil
fertility recovered.
But the elite struck back with violence. Through a process called enclosure, common lands
— forests, pastures, rivers — were fenced off and turned into private property. Villages were
destroyed and communities left with nothing. For the first time in history, real poverty existed:
people without land or resources who had no choice but to sell their labour just to survive.
Karl Marx called this primitive accumulation — the violent dispossession that provided the
starting capital for capitalism.
At the same time, European elites began colonising the rest of the world. Colonisation was
not romantic adventure but economic necessity — a new frontier of land, resources, and
enslaved labour. Enclosure at home and colonisation abroad were two sides of the same
coin.
Hickel's conclusion: capitalism did not arise naturally or inevitably. It was imposed through
organised violence, dismantled a thriving post-feudal society, and created artificial scarcity to
force people into wage labour.
Hickel's Opinion
Hickel is clearly outraged. He rejects the mainstream narrative that capitalism emerged naturally
from feudalism. He sees enclosure as a deliberate, violent, and political catastrophe. He
sympathises with the peasant revolts and views their suppression as a historical injustice whose
consequences we still live with today.
2
Jason Hickel
How Degrowth Will Save the World
Summary – English Oral Exam
Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6
Exam: June 22nd
1
, Chapter 1 – Capitalism: A Creation Story
Summary
Hickel opens with a provocative claim: the ecological crisis is not a human problem — it is a
capitalist problem. Humans have lived on Earth for 300,000 years, and only in the last few
centuries, precisely when capitalism emerged, did things begin to spiral out of control. Hickel
therefore rejects the term Anthropocene ('age of humans') and replaces it with his own: the
Capitalocene — the age of capitalism.
He then tells a largely forgotten story. In the 14th and 15th centuries, ordinary people across
Europe rose up against feudalism. After the Black Death (1347) wiped out a third of Europe's
population, labour became scarce and peasants gained real bargaining power: higher
wages, lower rents, and greater freedom. Historians call the period 1350–1500 the 'golden
age of the European proletariat'. Even the environment improved — forests regrew and soil
fertility recovered.
But the elite struck back with violence. Through a process called enclosure, common lands
— forests, pastures, rivers — were fenced off and turned into private property. Villages were
destroyed and communities left with nothing. For the first time in history, real poverty existed:
people without land or resources who had no choice but to sell their labour just to survive.
Karl Marx called this primitive accumulation — the violent dispossession that provided the
starting capital for capitalism.
At the same time, European elites began colonising the rest of the world. Colonisation was
not romantic adventure but economic necessity — a new frontier of land, resources, and
enslaved labour. Enclosure at home and colonisation abroad were two sides of the same
coin.
Hickel's conclusion: capitalism did not arise naturally or inevitably. It was imposed through
organised violence, dismantled a thriving post-feudal society, and created artificial scarcity to
force people into wage labour.
Hickel's Opinion
Hickel is clearly outraged. He rejects the mainstream narrative that capitalism emerged naturally
from feudalism. He sees enclosure as a deliberate, violent, and political catastrophe. He
sympathises with the peasant revolts and views their suppression as a historical injustice whose
consequences we still live with today.
2
