214 Buettgen, Review of Seventeen Contradictions CJDS 4.2 (May 2015) David Harvey, Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. Oxford University Press, 2014. 338 pages. Hardcover $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-19-936026-0 Reviewed by Alexis Buettgen Critical Disability Studies, York University alexisbr@yorku.ca In Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, David Harvey lives up to his recognition as one of the most astute critical analysts of the global capitalist system and its associated injustices. Through this insightful book, Harvey unveils capital for its impacts on capitalism and on our daily lives. To be clear, Harvey distinguishes capital as the economic engine of capitalism. Capitalism, he notes is “any social formation in which processes of capital circulation and accumulation are hegemonic and dominant in providing and shaping…social life” (p. 7). What is refreshing about this book is that Harvey not only helps to unmask what is truly happening in our political economic system, but also creates hypotheses and names opportunities to support strategic learning that informs the development of social change. He epitomizes the need to grasp theory that informs action. From a student perspective, this book has helped me to understand the both the idea of capital and its impacts with greater clarity and provided me with concrete considerations for a better way forward. In this text, Harvey succeeds in his aim to fill a gap in what he calls a “paucity of new thinking or policies” (p. xi) in the context of a lineup of crises of capitalism – the most recent being the financial collapse of 2008. Harvey establishes why capital appears to be sputtering and grumbling as of late, as well as why this economic engine should be replaced and with what. Harvey lays out how radical changes depend on human volition that must be conscious and fully aware of the nature of the present dangers of capital and the practical choices we face as a society. As he generates insights between past and present political, economic, and social events around the world and what caused them, Harvey effectively lays out Marxist theory in depth and