Jeremy Rifkin is a persuasive writer and a fine synthesizer of
cutting-edge ideas. Over the years he's taken on touchy subjects
like the beef industry, energy consumption, green economics, and
the future of work. As the president and founder of the
Foundation on Economic Trends, he's also been active in shaping
public policy on a variety of ecological and technological
issues. In this book, he explores how the last five centuries of
human history have shaped our relationship to the natural world.
It's a history that bears directly on some of our most serious
environmental problems today, according to Rifkin. The ideas
here are not entirely original — Rifkin borrows freely from the
work of a wide range of innovative thinkers, from Hazel
Henderson and Vandana Shiva to Fritjof Capra and Charlene
Spretnak. But the book is well-organized, convincingly argued,
and a pleasure to read. Rifkin uses the metaphor of "enclosure"
to trace the development of contemporary culture and its flawed
relationship to the biosphere