Nature's Economy

• Preface; Part I. Two Road Diverged: Ecology in the Eighteenth Century: 1. Science in Arcadia; 2. The empire of reason; Part II. The Subversive Science: Thoreau's Romantic Ecology: 3. A naturalist in concord; 4. Nature looking into nature; 5. Roots and branches; Part III. The Dismal Science: Darwinian Ecology: 6. A fallen world; 7. The education; 8. Scrambling for place; 9. The ascent of man; Part IV. O Pioneers: Ecology on the Frontier: 10. Words on a map; 11. Clements and the climax community; 12. Dust follows the plow; Part V. The Morals of a Science: Ethics, Economics, and Ecology: 13. The value of a varmint; 14. Producers and consumers; 15. Declarations of interdependence; Part VI. The Age of Ecology: Science and the Fate of the Earth: 16. Healing the planet; 17. Disturbing nature; Notes; Glossary of terms; Selected Bibliography; Index.

'A major purpose of this book, written at a time when ecology burgeons as both a science and a cult, is to show that ecological science has always been shifting ground … Worster's style is warm, intellectually strong, and eloquent.' Frederick E. Smith, Science