Affluence and Freedom: An Environmental History of Political Ideas

Pierre Charbonnier leads a philosophical investigation into the origins of the contract between democracy and growth. By tracing the history of modern political ideas back to the 17th century from an environmental perspective, the author attempts to identify changes in the legal and technical construction of our growth-oriented society and examines how these have shaped our understanding of freedom. This essay explores the complex and interrelated relationships between desires and the struggle for freedom in a material history. By avoiding a naive enthusiasm for both modernity and collapseology, the author seeks to repoliticize the ecological question.