John Brewer is Eli and Edye Broad Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, USA. Neil Fromer is the Executive Director of the Resnick Institute at the California Institute of Technology, USA. Fredrik Albritton Jonsson is Associate Professor of British History, Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago, USA. Frank Trentmann is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.
Scarcity is no longer just an axiom that governs the narrow world of modern economics; Scarcity in the Modern World reveals a socially, politically, and economically constructed condition in constant tension with the biophysical world. As the mantra of infinite growth in a finite world governs modern capitalism, scarcity threatens to have profound, if not devastating, effects on human life. Spanning cultures, continents, and academic disciplines, this timely anthology richly historicizes climate change and resource exhaustion, as well as proposes creative ways to conceptualize future solutions. This book serves as model for how interdisciplinary scholarship can productively address critical challenges facing humanity. * Carl Wennerlind, Professor of European History, Barnard College, USA *