Poverty of Nations  In "The Poverty of Nations: the Political Economy of Hunger and Population", Murdoch concludes that populations are irresponsibly expanding in a finite world and that this has put the planet at risk of exhausting its resources and of destroying its fundamental life support systems. The great challenge ahead, he notes, will be to make possible the control of population size and growth. A bottom-up approach, nonetheless, will be required to ensure success in this task. Profound changes to the sociopolitical infrastructure of the less developed countries must be achieved, with joint cooperation from the developed world, to guarantee that high fertility is no longer the inevitable outcome of the conditions in which people live in poor nations. Environment  In "Environment", William W. Murdoch synthesizes a collection of environmental studies aimed at instructing new generations of ecology students. He was prompted to work on the subject by an over accumulation of data that resulted from the public’s growing interest on environmental problems of the day. The scope of his study focuses primarily on the interplay of science, technology, human values, and institutions that make environmental science not only fascinating, but also relevant to the evolving sociopolitical dynamics of our world. This 1975 book demonstrates how Murdoch’s general theories on population ecology and environmental science were starting to shape up and presents an opportunity for comparison to later works and perspectives. Murdoch, W.W., Chesson, J., and Chesson, P.L. 1985. Biological control in theory and practice. "The American Naturalist" 125: 344–366. Murdoch, W. W. 1994. Population regulation in theory and practice. "Ecology" 75: 271–287. Murdoch, W. W., Luck, R.F., Swarbrick, S.L., Walde, S., Yu, D.S., and Reeve, J.D. 1995. Regulation of an insect population under biological control. "Ecology" 76: 206–217. Murdoch, W. W. and Briggs, C.J. 1996. Theory for biological control: Recent developments. "Ecology" 77: 2001–2013. Murdoch, W. W., Briggs, C.J., and Swarbrick, S.L. 2005. Host suppression and stability in a parasitoid-host system: experimental demonstration. "Science" 309: 610–613.