Schumacher, E.F. Small Is Beautiful. A Study of Economics As If People Mattered. London: Blond & Briggs, 1973.
Small Is Beautiful is a collection of essays by British economist E. F. Schumacher. Hailed as an “eco-bible” by the Time Magazine, Schumacher’s richly researched statement on sustainability has become more relevant and popular with each year since its initial publication during the 1973 energy crisis.
A landmark statement against “bigger is better” industrialism, Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful paved the way for twenty-first century books on environmentalism and economics, like Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty, Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism, Mohammad Yunis’s Banker to the Poor, and Bill McKibben’s Deep Economy.
The book still offers a crucial message for the modern world struggling to balance economic growth with the human costs of globalization. (Text adapted from HarperCollins Publishers.)