{"product_id":"the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world-on-the-possibility-of-life-in-capitalist-ruins","title":"The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat a rare mushroom can teach us about sustaining life on a fragile planet  Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the worldand a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees  matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan  where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions  matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made?  A tale of diversity within our damaged landscapes  The Mushroom at the End of the World follows one of the strangest commodity chains of our times to explore the unexpected corners of capitalism. Here  we witness the varied and peculiar worlds of matsutake commerce: the worlds of Japanese gourmets  capitalist traders  Hmong jungle fighters  industrial forests  Yi Chinese goat herders  Finnish nature guides  and more. These companions also lead us into fungal ecologies and forest histories to better understand the promise of cohabitation in a time of massive human destruction.  By investigating one of the worlds most sought-after fungi  The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes  the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44946451497013,"sku":"ByrdShop_0691162751","price":66.73,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780691162751.jpg?v=1769949786","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-mushroom-at-the-end-of-the-world-on-the-possibility-of-life-in-capitalist-ruins","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}