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Chapter Page
Preface vii
1. Trajectories: or common patterns of growth 1
Time Spans 3
Figures of Merit 6
Linear and Exponential Growth 12
Confined Growth Patterns 31
Collective Outcomes of Growth 54
2. Nature: or growth of living matter 71
Microorganisms and Viruses 76
Trees and Forests 95
Crops 111
Animals 129
Humans 151
3. Energies: or growth of primary and secondary converters 173
Harnessing Water and Wind 176
Steam: Boilers, Engines, and Turbines 184
Internal Combustion Engines 197
Nuclear Reactors and PV Cells 213
Electric Lights and Motors 217
4. Artifacts: or growth of man-made objects and their performances 225
Tools and Simple Machines 228
Structures 239
Infrastructures 252
Transportation 266
Electronics 284
5. Populations, Societies, Economies: or growth of the most complex assemblies 303
Populations 307
Cities 332
Empires 357
Economies 375
Civilizations 436
6. What Comes After Growth: or demise and continuity 449
Life Cycles of Organisms 454
Retreat of Artifacts and Processes 460
Populations and Societies 470
Economies 490
Modern Civilization 498
Coda 509
Abbreviations 515
Scientific Units and Their Multiples and Submultiples 519
References 521
Index 621

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.