The Vulnerable Planet: A Short Economic History of the Environment

Foster (sociology, U. of Oregon) writes his book partially to stress that "War, economic inequality, and third world underdevelopment... are inextricably bound to the larger question of the systematic degradation of the planet and of the conditions of life for a majority of the world's people. The failure to perceive this connection is the principal weakness of mainstream environmentalism," an idea recalling G.P. Marsh's that deforestation causes civilizational collapse. Chapters address the ecological crisis, ecological conditions before the industrial revolution, the environment at the time of the industrial revolution, expansion and conservation, imperialism and ecology, and the socialization of nature. Foster's revised version of the 1994 edition contains a new afterword, but apparently, no other changes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)