Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in Environment and History) [Paperback]

Donald Worster (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521468345 | ISBN-13: 978-0521468343 | Publication Date: June 24, 1994 | Edition: 2

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. 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. It concludes with a new Part VI, which looks at the directions ecology has taken most recently.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...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

Book Description

Including portraits of Linnaeus, Gilbert White, Darwin and Thoreau as well as key twentieth-century ecologists, this wide-ranging investigation of the field of ecology's past shows how it in turn has shaped the modern perception of our place in nature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 526 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (June 24, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521468345
• ISBN-13: 978-0521468343
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and enlightening, November 22, 2005

By 

"Dity" (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in Environment and History) (Paperback)

I used to muse on the subject of environmentalism and why two seemingly opposed camps ("pro-environment" and "anti-environment"--though "anti-environment" could more fairly be termed "pro-development") think the way they do. This book answered many of my questions and started me thinking about more in-depth issues of environmentalism. The history presented is fascinating and, in some cases, appalling. I found myself thinking, "how could these people so eagerly destroy the environment that sustains them?", but at the same time the logic was right in front of me. I may not have agreed with it, but there it was.

The book is divided into six sections, which explore environmental thinking in chronological order: 1) Two Roads Diverged: Ecology in the Eighteenth Century; 2) The Subversive Science: Thoreau's Romantic Ecology; 3) The Dismal Science: Darwinian Ecology; 4) O Pioneers: Ecology on the Frontier; 5) The Morals of a Science: Ethics, Economics, and Ecology; 6) The Age of Ecology: Science and the Fate of the Earth.

This book was required reading for an environmental ethics class (something I think every college student should take), and I enjoyed reading it. We were asked to think about the points in the book in the context of 6 different frameworks: morals and ethics, religion, capitalism, the commons, science, and wilderness. I recommend that other readers do the same. Thinking about environmentalism from these different viewpoints gives it a different spin every time.

I never really considered myself an environmentalist, although I am all for living sustainably on the earth (within reason--some sustainability viewpoints are admittedly extreme). However, this book definitely shifted my opinions to those of a more environmentalist-like identity than I had before.

This review refers to the Second Edition (1994).

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worster Has Fine-Tuned the Historical Art of Observance, March 12, 2011

By 

Dusty J, Summit "Be a Skeptic" (Wonderful Washington State!) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in Environment and History) (Paperback)

Viewing nature as a multi-tiered economy is not a recent revelation. Donald Worster explores the genesis of this idea back to Gilbert White during the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. In sum, nature has producers and consumers. Consumers, whether they are humans, lions, bullfrogs or fire ants feed off the producers who are usually represented by photosynthesizing life forms. Consumers often aid producers in their propagation, even though it may not always be obvious. This concept of organic bodies interacting as a community is the basis of ecology.

Because there are so many variables, ecology and environmental study is a tricky field to study. Even more adroit are the historical scholars and their examinations of the environmental study. When most authors are banging their war drums calling for a reevaluation of environmental outlook or positing radical theories, Worster wishes to pursue a "deeper awareness of the roots of our contemporary perception of nature." He does not attempt to argue much of a hard-line point throughout his book, rather than openly explore the history of ecology. This is a simple and humble way to approach any topic and can be a truly wise idea. Worster separated the history of ecological thought into half a dozen eras. His hope was to illuminate the progression of ecology from organic, to romantic, to mechanistic, to tragic, to apocalyptic, and back to organic. By patiently probing through a massively diverse history of ecological ideas, Worster has written an epic of ecological history. If J.R.R Tolkien wrote an epic of ecology it would have turned out similar to Nature's Economy.

One strength of Worster's writing is his ability to draw upon obscure characters and develop attachments to various agents of history. Worster never grazes over characters or ideas, rather he supplies descriptions and backgrounds to diversify the story. He describes the drab appearance of "Oakies" and the tensions of Apollo 13. He explains the geology of the Galapagos Islands and the background Eugene Odum. By providing character development, background science and minute details, Worster has created an ecology of ecologists.

Worster provided so much detail in an attempt to push his minor thesis and his only real argument. According to Worster, ecology (along with other sciences) progressed according to the social and cultural patterns of the time. I will highlight just three of these instances.

The nineteenth century of the western world saw technological growth and scientific development in such quantities that had not been achieved for two thousand years. Man's achievements reaffirmed the belief that the natural world should be categorized and mechanized both physically and ideologically. Ecology in its attempts to identify the various cogs and relationships in nature fit surprisingly well into the mechanists blueprint. Nature was meticulously broken down and organized in order to identify as many agents in the economy of nature as possible. Ecology aided this process.

Ecology was looked to out of desperation during the 1930's and Dust Bowl catastrophe. Ecologists had much to offer in regards to explaining the dust storms. Most importantly they explained why it happened and how to prevent it from happening in the future. Ecology, with its ability to understand natural relationships, educated people in the importance of naturally evolved landscapes. These landscapes evolved through species succession and climax. Ecologists gained some admiration and even a few public pay-checks.

Lastly, ecology became an oasis of purity following the atomic bomb and World War Two. For centuries, scientists were bringers of progress, knowledge, and curiosity. But shame and fear was cast over the scientific community upon the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The most brilliant physicists in the world who once pondered the heavens and studied the forces that keep us floating through space became the harbingers of unrelenting death produced from the laboratory. Chemists who once theorized on the elemental similarities of humans, birds and trees became the dark scientist who played God by perverting the elements. Science, as Worster explained morbidly, had a large stain on its lab coat. Ecology, with its happier appraisals of life and natural connections became very popular in the shadow of the bomb. And so entered, "the Age of Ecology."

As mentioned above, Worster routinely supplemented his history of ecology with details and narratives. Initially, I found this cumbersome and inhibiting to the point. Only after getting through one third of the book did I realize that the details are the point. The details are what create the connections of ecology. The characters and their diverse backgrounds were what the human culture was comprised of. Two hundred years of botany, biology, geology, physics and curiosity mixed with two hundred years of market economy, integrated with two hundred years of social and cultural trends all added up to a photograph of earth taken by an Apollo astronaut drifting through the vacuum of dead space. There it lay, a tiny blueish greenish gem able to support complex life, the only such gem we know of. Ecology as an idea existed for centuries, ecology as a thesis was born from that photograph. Donald Worster's Nature's Economy had to have all the details it did, it was the only way to appreciate the complex connections existing on earth.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars solid, informative, and clearly written., March 25, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Studies in Environment and History) (Paperback)

This comment of Worster's from page 433 pretty much sums it all up:

"Whether we choose to learn from the past or not, the past is our most reliable instructor in reality."

He presents the supporting material for his case just as elegantly and firmly, throughout the book.