The issue of sustainability, and the idea that economic growth and
development might destroy its own foundations, is one of the defining
political problems of our era. This groundbreaking study traces the
emergence of this idea, and demonstrates how sustainability was
closely linked to hopes for growth, and the destiny of expanding
European states, from the sixteenth century. Weaving together
aspirations for power, for economic development and agricultural
improvement, and ideas about forestry, climate, the sciences of the
soil and of life itself, this book sets out how new knowledge and
metrics led people to imagine both new horizons for progress, but also
the possibility of collapse. In the nineteenth century, anxieties
about sustainability, often driven by science, proliferated in debates
about contemporary and historical empires and the American frontier.
The fear of progress undoing itself confronted society with finding
ways to live with and manage nature.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781108697729
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Cambridge University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter