The Invention of Infinite Growth
How Economists Forgot About the Natural World
$44.00
- Hardcover
384 pages
- Release Date
2 February 2026
Summary
For decades now, mainstream economics has lost contact with reality. As early as 1974, the great Robert Solow made the outlandish claim that ‘the world can, in effect, get along without natural resources’. The important thing, they said, was growth. Growth would fix everything. Meanwhile, scientists were busy confirming the direct link between increasing economic activity and ecological upheaval.
It didn’t have to happen this way. Over the past century, economists have created a numbe…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780861540044 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 0861540042 |
| Author: | Christopher F. Jones |
| Publisher: | Oneworld Publications |
| Imprint: | Oneworld Publications |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 384 |
| Release Date: | 2 February 2026 |
| Weight: | 594g |
| Dimensions: | 234mm x 153mm x 33mm |
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What They're Saying
Critics Review
‘Clear, enjoyable and insightful… Jones has achieved a scholarly miracle. The origins and intellectual success of the growth fetish among Anglo-American economists, and the policymakers who listen to them, is among the most consequential yet neglected stories of modern times.’ —J. R. McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun
‘Superb scholarship and writing on the most important untold story of our time.’ —David W. Orr, author of Dangerous Years
About The Author
Christopher F. Jones
Christopher Jones is a historian of energy, economics, and the environment based at Arizona State University. He held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Center for Environment and was a Ciriacy-Wantrup Fellow in Natural Resources and Political Economy at the University of California-Berkeley, and is a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the author of Routes of Power: Energy and Modern America (Harvard University Press, 2014).
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