Penury into Plenty

Penury into Plenty demonstrates that the investigation of past ecological consciousness and environmental change is vital for understanding contemporary concerns. By drawing upon environmental, economic, scientific and literary history and theory, this book examines the socio-economic and ecological crises in England in the 1590s. Ayesha Mukherjee particularly examines the activities and theories of prolific "dearth scientist", Sir Hugh Platt, whose holistic approach explains not only what dearth or famine meant in the period, but how contemporaries understood sustainable resource management and allows modern readers to see that sustainability is not a wholly modern concept.