Taking population seriously

by Frances Moore Lappé

Originally published in 1988 and 1990, this book asks what positive lessons can be learned from some of the developing world's success stories on population. Six developing world countries, as well as the Indian state of Kerala had achieved dramatic reductions in birth rates at the time the book was originally published. The book examines what made their success possible and what lessons they held for the planet, where human beings (now, as then) must bring our species into balance with the natural world.

Genres: Nonfiction

87 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

About the author

Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet --distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare "aha" book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity - their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of "frame"--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes. She pinpoints the dominant failing frame now driving out planet toward disaster. By interweaving fresh insights, startling facts, and stirring vignettes of ordinary people pursuing creative solutions to our most pressing global problems, Lappe uncovers a new, empowering "frame" through which real solutions are emerging worldwide."
Frances Moore Lappé is married to Dr. Marc Lappé a former experimental pathologist interested in the problem of environmental contamination.