A Concise History of World Population

by Massimo Livi - Bacci (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $6.11

  Since its original publication in 1992, this book has become the standard history of world population. Its underlying purpose is to explain the links between nature, culture, and population and thereby to look at ways of preventing future environmental collapse and human catastrophe. Coverage of the changing patterns of population growth, and the effects of migrations, wars, disease, technology and culture, are addressed. For the third edition, the author has included new estimates and projections on world population to the year 2050, and updated the quantitative documentation and the bibliography. He has expanded the text on the geopolitical implications of demographic increase on different regions of the world and added sections on the effects of HIV on mortality and on sustainability of an extended life span. At the same time, the features that made previous editions attractive have been retained: the informative and accessible style, the reasoned treatment of issues crucial to the future of every species, and the contemporary recasting of theory.

• Used

  Paperback
  1997

  $3.38

  This study describes and explains the history of human population. It examines the changing patterns of its growth, and the effects upon it of migrations, wars, disease, technology and culture. First published in 1992, the book is an account of the contemporary recasting of theory, and features a reasoned treatment of issues crucial to the future of every species. This revised edition takes account of recent trends and research. The author provides a new account of the causes and consequences of European migration and colonization, and of the interactive influence of nature, place and space on settlement and population dynamics. He has revised his discussion of the relationship between development, affluence and population change. The final chapters of the book have been entirely recast to give an extensive analysis of the carrying capacity of the planet in relation to a possible doubling of population during the next 50 years. The book examines the effects of changes in relative affluence and population growth on food production, resources and the natural environment. We are entering a new historical phase, Massimo Livi-Bacci suggests, in which population growth will cease to produce economies of scale and may start to produce overwhelming diseconomies - the result of which could be environmental collapse and human catastrophy. The underlying purpose of this book is to understand the links between nature, culture and population, and to seek thereby the means of avoiding such an outcome.