ISBN:
9783319091808
Language:
English
Pages:
1 online resource (268 pages)
Series Statement:
Environmental History Ser. v.4
Parallel Title:
Erscheint auch als
DDC:
304.2
Keywords:
Human ecology ; History..
;
Environmental sciences ; History
;
Electronic books
Abstract:
This book is an introductory instrument to the main themes of environmental history, illustrating its development over time, methodological implications, results achieved and those still under discussion. But the overriding aspiration is to show that the doubts, methods and knowledge elaborated by environmental history have a heuristic value that is far from negligible precisely in its attitude to the most consolidated major historiography. For this reason, this book gives an overview of environmental history as it is an essential component of the basic knowledge of global history. At the same time, it introduces specific aspects which are useful both for anyone wanting to deepen his/her studies of environmental historiography and for those interested in one of the many disciplinary areas - from rural history to urban history, from the history of technology to the history of public health, etc. with which environmental history develops a dialogue.
Abstract:
Intro -- Environmental History and other Histories.A Foreword -- Contents -- Editors and Contributors -- 1 Energy in History -- Abstract -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Definitions and Concepts -- 1.2.1 An Economic Definition -- 1.2.2 Energy and Production -- 1.2.3 Energy and History -- 1.3 Pre-modern Organic Vegetable Economies -- 1.3.1 The First Age: Food -- 1.3.2 The Second Age: Fire -- 1.3.3 The Third Age: Agriculture -- 1.3.4 Main Features of the Organic Vegetable Economies -- 1.4 Modern Organic Fossil Economies -- 1.4.1 The Start of the Energy Transition -- 1.4.2 The Volume and Trend of Energy Consumption -- 1.4.3 The Process of Substitution -- 1.4.4 The Geography of Energy Production -- 1.4.5 The Price of Energy -- 1.4.6 Energy and Economy -- 1.4.7 Energy and Environment -- 1.4.8 The Future of Energy -- 1.5 Conclusion -- References -- 2 Economic History and the Environment: New Questions, Approaches and Methodologies -- Abstract -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 The Missing Role of Useful Work from Energy Carriers in Economic Growth -- 2.3 From Economic History to Social Metabolism and Beyond -- 2.4 The Socio-metabolic Profiles of Past Organic and Present Industrial Economies -- 2.5 Why the Industrial Revolution Began in a High Wage and Cheap Energy Economy -- 2.6 Land-Use and Livestock Breeding as a Crucial Metabolic Hinge for Yield Increase -- 2.7 Nature-Society Interaction Between a Malthusian Trap and a Smithian Response -- 2.8 From One Unsustainable Path to Another: The First Globalization as a Watershed -- 2.9 Was There a General Crisis of Biomass Energy Carriers in Europe? -- 2.10 Concluding Remarks -- Acknowledgments -- Chap2 -- References -- 3 Environmental History of Soils -- Abstract -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 A Soil Science Primer -- 3.2.1 Soils and Their Fertility -- 3.2.2 Soil Functions and Threats to Soils -- 3.2.2.1 Erosion.
Note:
Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources
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