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Shrinking the Earth

By Donald Worster

Published by Oxford Press

• When Nick Carraway spoke of the mysterious green light in the distance, Worster contends, he could have been referring to “nature’s green light of infinite promise.”

The discovery of the Americas around 1500 AD was an extraordinary watershed in human experience. It gave rise to the modern period of human ecology, a phenomenon global in scope that set in motion profound changes in almost every society on earth. This new period, which saw the depletion of the lands of the New World, proved tragic for some, triumphant for others, and powerfully affecting for all.

In this work, acclaimed environmental historian Donald Worster takes a global view in his examination of the ways in which complex issues of worldwide abundance and scarcity have shaped American society and behavior over three centuries. Looking at the limits nature imposes on human ambitions, he questions whether America today is in the midst of a shift from a culture of abundance to a culture of limits--and whether American consumption has become reliant on the global South. Worster engages with key political, economic, and environmental thinkers while presenting his own interpretation of the role of capitalism and government in issues of wealth, abundance, and scarcity. Acknowledging the earth's agency throughout human history, Shrinking the Earth offers a compelling explanation of how we have arrived where we are and a hopeful way forward on a planet that is no longer as large as it once was.

Prologue: Gatsby's Green Light

Part One: Second Earth

The Age of Abundance Begins

Many Revolutions Follow

Ultimately, Stability

Field Trip: Nantucket Island

Part Two: After the Frontier

The Watershed

Land of Coal and Steel

The Resourceful State

Field Trip: Imperial Valley

Part Three: Planet of Limits

Plunder and Plenty

David Potter's America

A Wolf over the Hill

Earth's Boundaries

Field Trip: Athabasca River

Epilogue: Life on a Pale Blue Dot

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

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• Available at Amazon.com

Selected Reviews:

"Amidst the numerous waves of environmental criticism and theory over the past 40 years, Worster, one of the early prominent voices of environmental history, manages to remain committed to the foundational principles that have defined the larger environmental movement, while also keeping in tune with the changing landscape of the field and the significant concerns of the present moment."--Kevin MacDonnell, Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences, Rice University

"Shrinking the Earth represents a critical and important contribution to environmental history. It is a book that is fascinating to read, erudite, and engrossing to anyone interested in comprehending the choices we have related to environmental issues and our future here on planet earth."--Joseph Michael Gratale, European Journal of American Studies

"Thoughtfully addresses natural resources and the toll humans have exacted on nature over time."--Publishers Weekly

"The mathematics of the statement, 'Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist'...is simple and unquestioned. Yet it has been conveniently ignored, not only by most economists over the last century, but many politicians, social scientists, and ecologists as well. In his excellent Shrinking the Earth, Donald Worster makes the convincing case that this disconnect between simple mathematics and the ivory towers ultimately stems from the discovery of the western Hemisphere by Europeans, which essentially doubled their carrying capacity."--Jeffrey C. Nekola, Trends in Ecology & Evolution

"Worster's is a humane eye; his new book thoughtful instead of hectoring, filled with profound insights. There are many among us who cling to the idea that nature was made for man to dominate and subdue. There are some who believe that despite shrinking resources, our scientific ability and technological know-how can somehow save the planet as we inch towards 9 billion mouths to feed. Worster asks his reader...what will happen if we don't heed nature's warning signs and come to terms with our shrinking planet."--Gaylord Dold, The Wichita Eagle

"Thinking beyond national politics may be necessary to address the social fractures we are seeing on every continent. This is the central message Donald Worster offers in Shrinking the Earth....Underlying the social and political tensions of the world, he argues, is concern that the future may not promise the growth opportunities it once did....This is the central irony in Worster's analysis: an economy based on New World bounty has been expanding while the bounty itself has been shrinking. This contradiction between expectation and experience has contributed to strange politics all over the planet, ideologies that reflect a fear that the dream of endless progress cannot be realized."--Shen Hou, Environmental History

"A far-ranging intellectual history of scientific, economic, and ecological thought in Europe and the United States, emphasizing how leading voices in these disciplines either accepted the finiteness of natural resources or argued that limits, if they existed at all, could be overcome through science, technology, and human ingenuity. True to the rest of Worster's extensive corpus, this history of ideas about abundance, scarcity, and limits is grounded firmly in a material history of the resources themselves....This book is far more than a sweeping review of ideas about nature and resources. Worster argues forcefully and persuasively that after half a millennium of abundance originating from the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, the world has reached its 'full complement of riches.' Our future well-being will depend on acknowledging and responding to nature's limits."--Philip Garone, American Historical Review

"One of our greatest environmental historians points out the thing we've done our best to ignore: that we live on a physical planet that comes with real limits. This intriguing volume is as much about our future as about our past."--Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth

"In Shrinking the Earth Donald Worster compellingly shows how exponential population growth has pushed the natural world to the very edge of what it can sustain. At the same time, he explains how North America got to its present state and offers essential historical perspective for those seeking to restore some balance to our distressed planet."--Paul R. Ehrlich, Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University

"Donald Worster is one of the most thoughtful of all environmental historians. In Shrinking the Earth he argues that age of abundance is over and that limits on natural resources will be an increasingly central reality of our collective future. It is a sweeping narrative, beautifully written and eminently readable, that has profound implications for how we think about our place in the world."--Peter Crane, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

"Shrinking the Earth is a book that will forever change the way we look at our world. It is as much a book about the future of humankind as it is about American history. A gripping and readable story of America's conquest of nature, it calls, with subtlety and urgency, for a new era in which humans will begin to understand the fragility of their environment and their role in preserving planet earth."--Christof Mauch, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich

"Shrinking the Earth confirms Donald Worster's stature as our finest environmental historian. In this elegant, probing narrative, he shows how some Americans have gradually and grudgingly come to recognize that our natural resources are finite. And he rightly wonders whether this recognition has come to too few, too late. Like all Worster's books, this is a sobering, compelling, and finally inspiring read."--Jackson Lears, author of Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920

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Kansas historian examines abundance

Kansas has reason to be proud of Donald Worster, one of America’s foremost environmental historians. As a distinguished professor at the University of Kansas for more than 20 years, Worster has built an enviable resume in both teaching and writing, publishing vital volumes that spearhead much contemporary debate about the nature of growth, the extent and inevitability of climate change, hydraulic culture and the American West, and ecology and the American imagination; moreover, his is the definitive life of John Muir (“A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir,” 2008). His life of John Wesley Powell stands alongside the work of Wallace Stegner, and his “Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s” (2004) is a classic. Now honorary director of the Center for Ecological History at the University of Remnin in China and still American history professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, Worster has produced a new book examining our Western belief in never-ending abundance.

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