Before
the beginning of World War II, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher was a Rhodes scholar
and studied economics at Oxford University. He moved back to Germany but returned
to England to escape Nazism. When the war began he was imprisoned as an enemy
alien, but the British recognized his skills and abilities and he was soon working
with the British government against the Nazis. After the war, Schumacher was instrumental
in helping with the recovery of the British economy and during this time, he began
to realize the problems that the post-war world would face. It was clear to him
that "bigger is better" was not necessarily the best policy and so he began to
form his ideas for a better society which included community land trusts easily
accessible for sustainable use, encouraging ownership of firms by workers and
establishing local currencies. In 1973, he published Small Is Beautiful
and it became a best-seller. In 1978, one year after his death, the E.F. Schumacher
Society was founded in order to promote his ideas for an environmentally sustainable,
culturally satisfying, and sane society.
Bio
© Larry Auld
