Description
Growth Growth Growth retells history as a succession of pivotal crises linked to economic growth. Beginning with agriculture ten thousand years ago, each crisis led to an impasse until human ingenuity devised a technical ‘solution’ to fix it. These solutions included the alphabet, paper, clocks, guns, the printing press, the steam engine, the petrol engine, electricity, nitrogen fertilizer, and the computer. Each solution, however, played a part in the next crisis. This time, however, there is no technical solution, and the continuation of our economic system causes us to devour the Earth’s finite resources.
Julian Cobbing studied history at King’s College, London University, under A G Dickens and Michael Howard, and went on to a PhD at Lancaster University. Until his retirement he was a professor of history at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
