'This is a pathbreaking collection of essays on the place of environmental themes in the history of political thought, and the relevance of that history to today's ecological crises. We will be drawing on these insights for years to come.' Jedediah Purdy, Robinson O. Everett Professor of Law, Duke University, North Carolina
1. Introduction: history, theory and the environment Katrina Forrester and Sophie Smith; Part I. Time Nature and the Land: 2. Is there any place for environmental thinking in early modern European political thought? Annabel Brett; 3. 'Sustainability', resources and the destiny of states in German cameralist thought Paul Warde; 4. Abundance and scarcity in geological time, 1784–1844 Fredrick Albritton Jonsson; 5. Slack Malcolm Bull; Part II. Science, Agency and the Future: 6. The nature of fear and the fear of nature from Hobbes to the hydrogen bomb Deborah Coen; 7. Between Frankfurt and Vienna: two traditions of political ecology John O'Neill and Thomas Uebel; 8. Uncertainty, action and politics: the problem of negligibility Melissa Lane; 9. What kind of problem is negligibility: a response to Melissa Lane Richard Tuck; 10. Optimism, pessimism, fatalism David Runciman; Afterword: climate change in the light of the past Quentin Skinner.