Description
Book SynopsisFrom humans to hermit crabs to deep water plankton, all living things compete for locally limiting resources. This work offers an exploration of the facts and theories of biology, economics, and geology to show how processes common to all economic systems govern evolution as surely as they do the human economy.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2004 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Geology and Earth Science, Association of American Publishers "Novel and intriguing... [Nature: An Economic History] offers a distinctive point of view and an insightful synthesis that promises to provide the basis of much future work."--Douglas H. Erwin, Science "Vermeij is one of the master naturalists of our time, and his command of the subtleties of animal interactions is exceptional. I think anyone can learn a great deal from this book."--Richard K. Bambach, American Scientist "Vermeij, a well-known paleontologist and observer of nature writ large, has written a marvelously interdisciplinary work that makes an important contribtuion to the literature of complex adaptive systems... [R]eaders who are interested in multidisciplinary issues will benefit from Vermeij's impressive breadth of knowledge. It is a pleasure to follow his articulate and synthesizing trek across the boundaries of conventional academic subjects."--Eric J. Chaisson, Quarterly Review of Biology There are clear analogies between economics and biological evolution, but the thesis of this articulate essay is that both fields can and should be described in exactly the same terms in a single theoretical framework... In successive chapters describing consumption of resources, competition, organization, environment and geography, evolutionary biologist Vermeij illustrates, with copious examples from paleontology, ecology, and economic history, the overarching common description of competition for locally scarce resources and differential success based on variation, leading to evolving adaptations and descent with modification."--Choice "Geerat Vermeij ... has taken economic reasoning even further, arguing in Nature: An Economic History that economists and natural scientists are asking the same kinds of questions in their seemingly disparate fields... Vermeij makes a convincing case that thinking about large swaths of the natural world in terms of competition for scarce resources is both accurate and useful."--Andrew P. Morriss, Books & Culture "Vermeij presents a natural history written in what he considers economic terms and argues that biologists should know more about economics. While the exchanges between economics and biology can sometimes be hazardous and misleading, quite a bit could be learned by economists from reading this book."--Joel Mokyr, Journal of Economic Literature
Table of ContentsPreface vii CHAPTER ONE: Economy and Evolution: A Road Map 1 CHAPTER TWO: The Evolving Economy 13 CHAPTER THREE: Human and Nonhuman Economies Compared 38 CHAPTER FOUR: The Economics of Everyday: Consumption and the Role of Enemies in Nature 59 CHAPTER FIVE: The Economics of Everyday: Production and the Role of Resources 92 CHAPTER SIX: The Ingredients of Power and Opportunity: Technology and Organization 121 CHAPTER SEVEN: The Ingredients of Power and Opportunity: The Environment 145 CHAPTER EIGHT: The Geography of Power and Innovation 169 CHAPTER NINE: Breaking Down and Building Up: The Role of Disturbance 204 CHAPTER TEN: Patterns in History: Toward Greater Reach and Power 246 CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Future of Growth and Power 292 Appendix 1: Abbreviations 317 Appendix 2: The Geological Time Scale 319 Notes 321 Literature Cited 371 Index 431
