E F
Schumacher is
Ernst Friedrich Schumacher was born in
Germany in 1911. A Rhodes scholar at Oxford in the 1930’s, he fled back to
England before the Second World War to avoid living under Nazism. Although
Schumacher was interned as an enemy alien during the War, his extraordinary
abilities were recognized, and he was able to help the British government with
its economic and financial mobilization.
After the War, E. F. Schumacher worked
as an economic advisor to the British Control Commission charged with
rebuilding the German economy. From 1950 to 1970 he was Chief Economic Advisor
to the British Coal Board, one of the world’s largest organizations, with
800,000 employees. Schumacher's farsighted planning (he predicted the rise of
OPEC and the problems of nuclear power) aided Britain in its economic recovery.
In 1955 Schumacher traveled to Burma
as an economic consultant. While there, he developed the principles of what he
called “Buddhist economics,” based on the belief that good work was essential
for proper human development and that “production from local resources for
local needs is the most rational way of economic life.” Schumacher also gained
insights that led him to become a pioneer of what is now called
"appropriate technology": earth- and user-friendly technology matched
to the scale of community life.
E. F. Schumacher subsequently became a
featured writer—along with Leopold Kohr, John Papworth, Danilo Dolci, Paul
Goodman, John Seymour, and Satish Kumar in the British Journal Resurgence.
His best-selling book Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People
Mattered (1973, republished by Hartley & Marks in 1999) has
influenced many readers to re-examine societal and personal choices regarding
the persistent demands of modern life. His two other books are Good
Workand A Guide for the Perplexed.
From the E. F. Schumacher book Small
is Beautiful World Wisdom has included the "Epilogue" in our
collection Science
and the Myth of Progress .
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