Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas

by Donald Worster

Overview

Nature's Economy is a wide-ranging investigation of ecology's past, first published in 1994. 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 Rachel Carson, Frederic Clements, Aldo Leopold, James Lovelock, and Eugene Odum.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107263697
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/24/1994
Series:	Studies in Environment and History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

Table of Contents

Preface; Part I. Two Road Diverged: Ecology in the Eighteenth Century: 1. Science in Arcadia; 2. The empire of reason; Part II. The Subversive Science: Thoreau's Romantic Ecology: 3. A naturalist in concord; 4. Nature looking into nature; 5. Roots and branches; Part III. The Dismal Science: Darwinian Ecology: 6. A fallen world; 7. The education; 8. Scrambling for place; 9. The ascent of man; Part IV. O Pioneers: Ecology on the Frontier: 10. Words on a map; 11. Clements and the climax community; 12. Dust follows the plow; Part V. The Morals of a Science: Ethics, Economics, and Ecology: 13. The value of a varmint; 14. Producers and consumers; 15. Declarations of interdependence; Part VI. The Age of Ecology: Science and the Fate of the Earth: 16. Healing the planet; 17. Disturbing nature; Notes; Glossary of terms; Selected Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...Worster skillfully integrates environmental and intellectual history in a way that gives powerful testimony to the way a historical understanding of the ecology of place can contribute to the history of ideas." Isis

"Excellently written and highly absorbing...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." Edward J. Kormondy, Ecology

From the Publisher