The Death of Nature
Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution

In her 1980 book, The Death of Nature, Carolyn Merchant developed a feminist theory through the lens of the ecology movement. She explained how the pre-scientific world not only maintained a sense of chivalry and respect toward nature, but also associated feminine and life-giving characteristics to......more

Merchant is an historian of science, and her book studies how humankind's relationship with the natural world changed, especially over the past six centuries. Basically, we went from regarding the world as a living organism -- a "mother" -- to viewing nature as a machine ("natural resources"). Fasci......more

This book was quite simply not what I expected. If you're looking for a history of conceptions of nature explored from a feminist and environmentalist perspective, this book is great; if, however, you are looking for a more theoretical approach to the interconnections between women and nature (as the......more

Carolyn - you are quite clearly a genius but also can you drop me an email because how the heck am i meant to write 5,000 words on something i have absolutely nothing to add to x (Would have enjoyed more pictures in this)......more

I'm so glad this is over. That sounds like a terrible thing to say, because this is in many ways an excellent book. The research is incredibly thorough. And the argument itself is fascinating: that the history of science allows us to track changing attitudes towards nature, and that those attitudes......more