{"product_id":"the-invention-of-scarcity-by-deborah-valenze-9780300246131","title":"The Invention of Scarcity","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA radical new reading of eighteenth-century British theorist Thomas Robert Malthus, which recovers diverse ideas about subsistence production and environments later eclipsed by classical economics.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith the publication of \u003cem\u003eEssay on the Principle of Population\u003c\/em\u003e and its projection of food shortages in the face of ballooning populations, British theorist Thomas Robert Malthus secured a leading role in modern political and economic thought. In this startling new interpretation, Deborah Valenze reveals how canonical readings of Malthus fail to acknowledge the theorist’s remarkably narrow understanding of what constitutes food production.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eValenze returns to the eighteenth-century contexts that generated his arguments, showing how Malthus mobilized a redemptive narrative of British historical development and dismissed the varied ways that people adapted to the challenges of subsistence needs. In an argument that combines history, anthropology, food studies, and animal studies, she redirects our attention to the margins of Malthus’s essay, where activities such as hunting, gathering, herding, and gardening were rendered extraneous. She demonstrates how Malthus’s omissions and his subsequent canonization provided a rationale for colonial imposition of British agricultural models, regardless of environmental diversity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBy broadening our conception of human livelihoods, Valenze suggests pathways to resistance against the hegemony of Malthusian political economy. \u003cem\u003eThe Invention of Scarcity\u003c\/em\u003e invites us to imagine a world where monoculture is in retreat and the margins are recentered as spaces of experimentation, nimbleness, and human flourishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471798517996,"sku":"9780300246131","price":107.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300246131-the-invention-of-scarcity.jpg?v=1775255059","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/the-invention-of-scarcity-by-deborah-valenze-9780300246131","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}