Nature's
Economy : A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies
in Environment and History)
by Donald
Worster
Nature's Economy is a wide-ranging investigation of
ecology's past. It traces the origins of the concept, discusses
the thinkers who have shaped it, and shows how it in turn has shaped the
modern perception of our place in nature. Our view of the living
world is a product of culture and the development of ecology since the
eighteenth century has closely reflected society's changing
concerns. Donald Worster focuses on these dramatic shifts in
outlook and on the individuals whose work has expressed and influenced
society's point of view. The book includes portraits of Linnaeus,
Gilbert White, Darwin, Thoreau, and such key twentieth-century
ecologists as Frederic Clements, Aldo Leopold, and Eugene Odum.
The book concludes with a look at the directions ecology has taken most
recently.
"A major purpose of this book, written at a time
when ecology burgeons as both a science and a cult, is to show that
ecological science has always been shifting ground...Worster's style is
warm, intellectual, strong, and eloquent." -- Science
"Worster's knowledge of the relevant primary and
secondary sources for the history of ecology is extensive....His talents
are evident in both analysis and synthesis. With all things
considered, Nature's Economy is clearly an important contribution
to the history of ecology." ISIS
"The in-depth treatment Worster has given to many
who contributed to the evolution and revolution of the discipline
reflects scholarship of high order. To write in a highly readable
and absorbing style makes it even more praiseworthy. Graduates in
ecology at baccalaureate to doctoral levels, and the many practitioners
of the discipline, basic and applied, would do well to take stock of
where they came from. Worster is a very worthwhile guide. -- Ecology
"Donald Worster's book, a gracefully written
account of selected events in the history of ecology, is designed to
show how this field developed prior to the mid-twentieth century
explosion of concern about the subject....Worster has written a volume
that should be read and pondered. Historians have given
insufficient attention to some of the topics he discusses, and
ecological history is just beginning to receive the priority it
deserves. Worster has made a good beginning. -- American
Historical Review
Donald Worster is also the author of Dust
Bowl, winner of the 1980 Bancroft Prize.
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The
Ends of the Earth : Perspectives on Modern Environmental History (Studies
in Environment and History) by Donald
Worster
A collection
of essays explores the interrelationship of higher population levels,
greater resource demands and an increasingly precarious state of the
biosphere with the development of an integrated global economy.
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here for other books in the Studies in Environment and History Series
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