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Barbara Ward (1) (1914–1981)

Author of Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet

For other authors named Barbara Ward, see the disambiguation page.

23+ Works 642 Members 3 Reviews

About the Author

British-born Barbara Ward was educated at the Sorbonne and Oxford, where she took first-class honors in philosophy, politics, and economics. In 1939 she joined the staff of the Economist, becoming foreign editor the following year. For four years, beginning in 1946, she served as a governor of the show more British Broadcasting Company. In the years that followed she was Carnegie Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Harvard, Albert Schweitzer Professor at Columbia, and a member of the Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace. An outstanding authority on world political, social, and economic issues, Barbara Ward has written many books for the general reader. In her Five Ideas That Change the World (1959) the ideas are nationalism, industrialism, colonialism, communism, and internationalism. In another work, India and the West (1961), she defined the urgency of India's desperate economic requirements and outlined a specific program for their accomplishment. Of it Edward Weeks wrote in the Atlantic: "Ward's new book . . . is in many respects the most important she has ever written. The qualities which she brings to her writing---her gift for historical analysis, her explanation of difficult economic problems, and her reasonable faith in the initiative of the free world---were never more needed." The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations (1962), which President Lyndon Johnson remarked "excites and inspires me" and Adlai Stevenson found "exceedingly important," was described in the New York Times Book Review by Eric F. Goldman as "wondrously lucid, richly informed and trenchantly argued, tough-minded but never failing to assume that intelligence and will can move human society forward." (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Works by Barbara Ward

Associated Works

Saints for Now (1952) — Contributor — 103 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Other names
Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth
Birthdate
1914-05-23
Date of death
1981-05-31
Gender
female
Nationality
UK
Birthplace
Heworth, Yorkshire, England, UK
Place of death
Lodsworth, West Sussex, England, UK
Places of residence
Heworth, Yorkshire, England (birth)
Education
Oxford University (Somerville College)
Sorbonne
Occupations
economist
writer
journalist
editor
conservationist
Relationships
Dubos, Rene (colleague)
Organizations
The Economist
Awards and honors
Order of the British Empire ( [1974])
Life Peerage ( [1976])
Campion Award (1964)
Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1980)
Short biography
Barbara Mary Ward was born in Yorkshire, England. She attended a Catholic convent school before studying at a lycée in Paris and the Sorbonne. She went to Oxford University, where she read politics, philosophy, and economics and graduated in 1935. During postgraduate work in Vienna, she witnessed Nazi persecution of Jews and became active in the Sword of the Spirit movement to oppose Nazism, and groups to assist Jewish refugees. She published her first book in 1938, The International Share-out, which led to a job with The Economist, where she rose to become foreign editor. In 1950, she married Robert Jackson (later Sir Robert), a United Nations administrator, with whom she had a son. She wrote many articles and books on the problem of sustainability and the global threat of poverty, including The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations (1962), Spaceship Earth (1966), Only One Earth (with René Dubos, 1972), and Progress for a Small Planet (1980). She was a frequent public speaker and an influential adviser to the Vatican, the UN, and the World Bank. She was appointing Schweitzer Professor of Economic Development at Columbia University, and retired in 1973. The next year she was made a DBE, and in 1976 a life peer as Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth.

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Reviews

Read for my Current Affairs class in high school required reading by Dr. Hugh Roberts. Great ideas, nationalism requires an enemy.
 
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MMc009 | Jan 30, 2022 |
The only reason that this book gets four, rather than five, stars is my tardiness. If I had come across it nearer to its publication date, I should have been unhesitating in issuing a full set of stars. This must be one of the first works to look critically at the drive for industrial supremacy and, as such, has been superseded by later works. I am sure, however, that were one to question the writers of the next series of works upon the subject, they would have happily acknowledged their debt to this book.

When one remembers that this was written in 1973, it is amazing just how insightful the views, and scientific evidence, was: of course, it is also depressing to see how little has been achieved in forty years. The possibility of Global Warming - now Climate Change - had not been proved, but a few wise voices were expressing concerns. The hole in the ozone layer was still to be discovered and, I can imagine that this book was seen as the hight of cranky, left-wing literature: now, it is pretty restrained. i am not sure that there is too much to be learned from this work, but it is fascinating to put some history to the fight to save the planet. It is, also, interesting to see how little the opposition has moved - then and now, too many people bury their heads and hope that, by ignoring the problem, it will go away of its own accord.
… (more)
 
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the.ken.petersen | Sep 25, 2014 |
 
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polluxtrees | Apr 13, 2007 |

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Statistics

Works
23
Also by
2
Members
642
Popularity
#39,293
Rating
3.0
Reviews
3
ISBNs
61
Languages
3

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