Be Fruitful and Multiply

Donald Worster is an award-winning author and one of the founders of the field of environmental history. His many books include Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, winner of the Bancroft Prize. He lives in Corvallis, OR.

“With his customary brio and imagination, Donald Worster, the doyen of environmental historians, takes on world history, putting food and fertility front and center.”—J. R. McNeill, author of The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945“Donald Worster’s Be Fruitful and Multiply revolutionizes environmental history by placing planetary and human fertility at the center of our understanding of humanity’s past and future possibilities on earth. Worster crafts a sweeping narrative that challenges conventional pessimism with a scientifically grounded optimism about our capacity for intelligence and adaptation.”—Nancy Langston, author of Sustaining Lake Superior: An Extraordinary Lake in a Changing World and Climate Ghosts: Migratory Species in the Anthropocene“This is Donald Worster at his best: history transformed into philosophy. Be Fruitful and Multiply is bold and provocative; overflows with wisdom; and is full of passion for all life on earth.”—Christof Mauch, Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich“Donald Worster presents a wide-ranging discussion of what drives humans (food and sex) and how they relate to environmental issues. His analysis is as penetrating as it is provocative. This book will be groundbreaking for years to come.”—Mary Evelyn Tucker, Yale University, coauthor of Journey of the Universe“Donald Worster’s book is far-reaching, ambitious, and exciting, a new classic in the field of environmental history.”—Edward D. Melillo, author of The Butterfly Effect: Insects and the Making of the Modern World