The Death of Nature

The idea that before the birth of modern science and the growth of European capitalism in the 16th century people lived in harmony with nature in self-sufficient agricultural communities is a powerful myth in the modern ecological movement and is used to attack modern science, capitalism and the international transport of food.

However it is a myth. In this damning critique Dr Matt Buttsworth attacks this strongly held, widespread idealisation of the past repeatedly put forward by radical ecologists.

Before the 17th century, people did not live in harmony with nature; international trade in valuable products was widespread as were poverty, starvation, exploitation and ecological destruction and living standards and improving longevity only appeared with the scientific/technological and economic revolutions that created the modern world.

This book is essential reading for those who wish to understand the reality of how people lived before the birth of the modern world, and how fallacious is the Green ecological mythologizing of the past.


The Death of Nature is part of Eden and the Fall.


To see further information on all of Matt Buttsworth's books go to 


www.mattbuttsworth.com