Ecodynamics: a new theory of social evolution

Only Kenneth Boulding, one of the "Renaissance men" of modern scholarship, could have undertaken the writing of ECODYNAMICS: A New Theory of Societal Evolution. This book is an imaginative synthesis of the major concepts of 20th century man, as seen through the eyes of a scholar singularly qualified to comment on these concepts. Between its covers Boulding has distilled the understanding and insight of almost half a century of teaching, writing and research in a variety of fields into a landmark theory of the development of societies.

Drawing upon his unique understanding of the social and behavioral sciences, and applying to it the tenets of evolutionary theory, as well as the principles of physical science, biology, philosophy, history and religion, Boulding postulates answers to the basic questions which underlie our understanding of society and ourselves: what patterns, if any, occur in the development of societies; why do some societies flourish and others founder; what is the nature of man's need for religion; what causes wars, and other questions of similar magnitude.

Boulding contends that the processes of man's social development do not lie beyond the dynamics which move atoms or galaxies. Societies are created by the same forces that species are; man's artifacts-be they automobiles or nation states-develop according to the same. laws as nature's. The principles of evolution, as Boulding defines them, can tell us much about the future of our contemporary civilization, just as it can about the survival chances of the bald eagle or the expansion of the universe.