A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society from tiny organisms to the
trajectories of empires and civilizations. Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim
of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies
it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our
economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust a rising gross
domestic product a child's growth chart the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial
book Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society from tiny
organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Smil takes readers from bacterial
invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with
organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous looking at disease-causing
microbes the cultivation of staple crops and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He
examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic
activities—developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally he looks at growth
in complex systems beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth
of cities. He considers the challenges of tracing the growth of empires and civilizations
explaining that we can chart the growth of organisms across individual and evolutionary time
but that the progress of societies and economies not so linear encompasses both decline and
renewal. The trajectory of modern civilization driven by competing imperatives of material
growth and biospheric limits Smil tells us remains uncertain.
