We think of economic theory as a scientific speciality accessible only to experts, but Victorian writers commented on economic subjects with great interest. Gordon Bigelow focuses on novelists Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell and compares their work with commentaries on the Irish famine (1845-1852). Bigelow argues that at this moment of crisis the rise of economics depended substantially on concepts developed in literature. These works all criticized the systematized approach to economic life that the prevailing political economy proposed. Gradually the romantic views of human subjectivity, described in the novels, provided the foundation for a new theory of capitalism based on the desires of the individual consumer. Bigelow's argument stands out by showing how the discussion of capitalism in these works had significant influence not just on public opinion, but on the rise of economic theory itself.

Rory Putman worked for many years within the Biology Department of the University of Southampton, where he established and led the University's highly-regarded Deer Management Research group; latterly he moved to become Research Professor of Behavioural and Environmental Biology at the Manchester Metropolitan University. He now works as a freelance environmental consultant and wildlife adviser based in Scotland. He has worked widely in the UK and overseas, with research efforts focused on the population ecology of ungulates and their interaction with their vegetational environment – always with the explicit focus of helping to develop more sensitive and more effective methods of managing those same ungulate populations and their impacts on agriculture, forestry or conservation interests.

Marco Apollonio is Full Professor at the University of Sassari, where he is presently Director of the Department of Zoology and of the Ph.D. school in Natural Science. His main interests are in ungulate behaviour, ecology and genetics, with a specific focus on mating and social behaviour and on predator-prey relationships involving wolves and ungulates. He is Past-President of the Italian Mammalogical Society and was involved in conservation activities as CITES Scientific Commission Member for Italy and as a member of the board of directors of two national parks in the last 15 years.

Reidar Andersen worked for many years in the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research. In 2005 he became Professor in Conservation Biology at the Museum of Natural History and Archaeology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He has been leading several cross-disciplinary research projects focusing on ungulates and large carnivores, always aiming to produce applied knowledge, securing sustainable management of the species involved. Since 2009 he has become part of the Directorate team at the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Conservation.

Contributors:

- Rory Putman

- Reidar Andersen

- Marco Apollonio

- John D. C. Linnell

- Frank E. Zachos

- Stefano Grignolio

- Ludek Bartos

- Nicolas Morellet

- François Klein

- Erling Solberg

- Friedrich Reimoser

- Ezio Ferroglio

- Christian Gortazar

- Joaquin Vicente

- Jochen Langbein

- Bostjan Pokorny

- Chris Smit

- Włodzimierz Jędrzejewski

- Bogumila Jędrzejewska

- Ilpo Kojola

- Marion L. East

- Bruno Bassano

- Bjørnar Ytrehus

- Atle Mysterud

- Bernt-Erik Sæther

- Robert Kenward