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Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights | 
 enlarge | Author: Bob Torres
Publisher: AK Press
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy Used: $6.00
You Save: $11.95 (67%)
New (27) Used (9) from $6.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 92140
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 185
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1904859674
Dewey Decimal Number: 179.3
EAN: 9781904859673
Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Suggest to the average leftist that animals should be part of broader liberation struggles andâonce they stop laughingâyou'll find yourself casually dismissed. With a focus on labor, property, and the life of commodities, Making a Killing contains key insights into the broad nature of domination, power, and hierarchy. It explores the intersections between human and animal oppressions in relation to the exploitative dynamics of capitalism. Combining nuts-and-bolts Marxist political economy, a pluralistic anarchist critique, as well as a searing assessment of the animal rights movement, Bob Torres challenges conventional anti-capitalist thinking and convincingly advocates for the abolition of animals in industryâand on the dinner plate.
Making A Killing is sure to spark wide debate in the animal rights and anarchist movements for years to come.
Table Of Contents:
I Taking Equality Seriously
II Chained Commodities
III Property, Violence, and the Roots of Oppression
IV Animal Rights and Wrongs
V You Cannot Buy the Revolution
Advance praise for Making A Killing
"Bob Torres' Making a Killing draws a very straight line between capitalism and the oppressive system of animal agribusiness. Drawing from social anarchist theory, Torres provides a convincing argument that in order to fight animal exploitation, we must also fight capitalism and, in doing so, animal rights activists will need to reconsider their methods and redirect their focus. While his critiques of the animal rights movements' large organizations may not earn him friends in high places, such considerations are crucial to keeping the movement on track and for preventing stagnation.
Making a Killing is an important work from a new voice in animal advocacy that will surely spark heated discussions amongst activists from all corners of the movement."âRyan MacMichael, vegblog.org
"In Making A Killing: The Political Economy of Animal Rights, Bob Torres takes an important and timely look at the animal rights movement, calling for a synthetic approach to all oppression, human and animal. His analytical framework draws together Marxism, social anarchist theory, and an abolitionist approach to animal rights to provide a timely social analysis that will no doubt have profound effects on the animal rights movement literature."âGary L. Francione
Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers University
"Bob Torres's socioeconomic analysis of nonhuman animal use is a welcome and important addition to the understanding of human-nonhuman relations at the beginning of the 21st century. In particular, Making a Killing, makes vital a contribution to understanding the role of the property status of animals and the continuing strength of various welfarist positions on the ethicsâand indeed the economicsâof the human utilisation of other animals. Making a Killing will become required reading for social scientists and others interested in modern social movements and the socioeconomic forces that shape their activities and their claims-making."âDr. Roger Yates, Lecturer in sociology at University College, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
"This is the book I've been waiting for. Making A Killing is a rare and powerful example of first-rate scholarship, a searing critique, and lively declaration of the rights of animals and humans. You will walk away from this book with a clear understanding as to why social justice movements for people must take animal rights seriously, and vice versa. Bob Torres has forever deepened my thinking about these relationships."âDavid Naguib Pellow, vegetarian, animal rights and anti-racist activist, and Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego; and author of Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago and Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice
Bob Torres is assistant professor of sociology at St. Lawrence University, received his PhD from Cornell, and is co-author of Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World. His writings have appeared in Critical Sociology, The Journal of Latinos and Education, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, and Satya magazine.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 What I've been waiting for! November 19, 2007
29 out of 32 found this review helpful
Making a Killing is the book I've been waiting for since I went vegan five years ago. First and foremost, Torres demonstrates that animal exploitation is not merely a consumer problem, but is part of an integrated social system based on hierarchy and domination. Through a clear and accessible introduction to Marxist political economy, Torres discusses animals through the logic of commodity forms and puts forth a set of flexible and empowering guidelines to abolish animal exploitation through an anarchist interpretation of Gary Francione's abolitionist framework.
Furthermore, Torres discusses the issues with contemporary anarchism and social justice politics, suggesting that to take equality seriously we must recognize animal subjectivity and fight for their liberation. In his use of Murray Bookchin's libertarian philosophy, aptly named 'social ecology', Torres makes the case for animals based on the anarchist critique of hierarchy and power.
Making A Killing is an excellent, entertaining read with an ambitious call for a serious reworking of our understanding of the animal rights movement based on social justice and democracy. Anyone hoping to understand animal rights, abolitionism, Marxism and anarchism will be delighted by this smart and readable book.
Impressed, inspired... December 31, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
As a committed listener to the "VeganFreak Radio Podcast" and vegan myself, ever since Bob Torres, the author of Making a Killing a political economy of animal right , made it obvious to the listeners of his and his wifes' Podcast that he was working on a book I become eager to purchase and read his only solo documentation of animal rights. Being a professor, Torres shows a sense of very well researched and expanded upon ideas within the book all revolving around the main reason for the book, animal rights. He takes everything from the most commercialized concepts to the smaller ideas behind closed doors and expands upon their deeper sociological meanings to help provide insight to the reader on all sides of the mostly horrible animal agriculture in this country, and all over the world for the most part. His highly articulated commitment to the welfare of animals comes across boldly within every section of this book, commenting on many of the well known activists articles of literature and explaining their importance to the reader. Describing the animals, viewed from a pure profit stand-point, as being exploited and simple commodities, not the living beings that they are. These "commodities" being parallel to a companion animal, being a dog or a cat most commonly. Overall this book opens ones eyes about the truths of the horrific animal agriculture, and slaps articulated and rich words on top of the commonly looked past ideas behind all aspects of the world of animal rights. From both a political stand point and sociological stand point this book presses important issues that should be realized by all americans who care about the welfare of living beings on earth, and have an interest in anarchist ideas related to animal rights.
Mind Expanding Revelations for a Revolution May 23, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
As committed as I thought I was to the animal rights movement and specifically veganism, I learned much about the how's and why's of the current trends and how to improve the outlook for all the world's sentient beings, indeed, Gaia herself from reading Bob Torre's wonderfully insightful book.
Torres helped me clarify my position and provided me with cogent reasoning to offer up when facing opposition. Torres provided me with support and confirmed that I and my fellow revolutionaries have what it takes to make it happen, to get to the point where animals are no longer viewed as something separate from us, a commodity we have no right to use for our greedy and avaricious ends, all written in language that gets to the root of the situation.
I walk away with "the revolution will not be televised. You cannot buy the revolution" but you can buy Making a Killing and get the revolution started......
Brilliant exposé on the animal industry & animal rights April 26, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Making A Killing is a comprehensive overview of the animal rights movement and how it relates to other liberation movements, including civil rights movements such as worker's rights and women's rights. Bob Torres clearly explains why animals must be included in a broader liberation movement, delivering startling insights into the reality of domination, power, and hierarchy across races, genders, and species. The smart analysis draws on Marxism, anarchism, and socioeconomic theory - this book is not a light read by any means! But there is no doubt that Making A Killing will have a far-reaching effect on animal rights in theory and practice. This book is a must-read for vegans and animal rights enthusiasts, and human rights advocates would do well to take notes from this astute social justice piece as well. The message is clear: compassion, freedom, and rights must be universal for any liberation movement to succeed.
Excellent December 21, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
When I found this title on the AK Press table at the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition Conference, I was excited to pick it up. I have long seen a connection between animal rights and broader critiques of capitalism and hierarchy, and hoped Making a Killing could be just the book to make those connections explicit.
The book exceeded my expectations. Torres provides thorough and accessible introductions to Marxist political economy and social anarchist theory, relating both to animal rights. Drawing on the anarchist critique of social hierarchy and domination, Torres argues that those who are concerned with social justice need to take the plight of animals seriously.
Making a Killing would be great for anyone interested in understanding anti-capitalist thinking as it relates to both human and non-human liberation.
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