A Concise History of World Population - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Massimo Livi-Bacci is Professor of Demography at the University of Florence. From 1989 to 1993 he was President of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. He has published extensively on the history of population and on demography, and has taught or held research fellowships at universities all over the world, including the Collège de France, the Colegio de Mexico, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, and Brown University. In Italy he is a member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and of the Committee of Enquiry on poverty.

Carl Ipsen is an assistant professor of History and West European Studies at Indiana University. He has recently published Dictating Demography: the Problem of Population in Fascist History.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

This book 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. Since its publication in 1992 it has become the most widely read account of the subject, valued for its contemporary recasting of theory, for its informative and accessible style, and for its reasoned treatment of issues crucial to the future of every species.

The book is now published in a fully revised edition, taking 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 fifty years. The author 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.