The Nature of Economies
Jane Jacobs

Published: 2000, Modern Library
ISBN: 0679603409

OUR REVIEW (Reviewed September 26, 2000, by Bill Pinkovitz)
At first glance, it would be easy to conclude that a book entitled The Nature of Economies must be the required text for an Econ 101 course; that would be a mistake. Although this book would enrich any discussion about economics, it is far from a textbook. Rather, The Nature of Economies provides the reader an opportunity to eavesdrop on a coffee clutch of five New Yorkers who are discussing whether "human beings exist wholly within nature as a part of natural order in every respect."

The Nature of Economies opens in the midst of a conversation about the recent breakup between Hortense and Ben. While analyzing the causes of the breakup and the future significant others of each, the five characters find time to debate the "energy, soil, fertilizer, and chemicals that could be saved if grain fields didn't require annual plowing and planting."

The fundamental questions under consideration are: "Does economic life obey the same rules that govern the systems of nature? Can the way field and forests maximize their intakes and uses of sunlight teach us something about how economies expand wealth and jobs and can do this in an environmentally beneficial ways?"

Jacobs recognizes that neither ecologists nor economists are likely to welcome her premise. She acknowledges the ecologists "understandable anger and despair--that the human species is an interloper in the natural order of things," as well as many people's "understandable pride in human achievements."

Through the characters' dialogue and examples from mathematics, nature, and science, Jacobs effectively challenges many of the fundamental theories we all learned in Econ 101. This is an entertaining, intriguing and thought-provoking book.

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