The New Worlds Of Thomas Robert Malthus

This book is a sweeping global and intellectual history that radically recasts our understanding of Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, the most famous book on population ever written or ever likely to be. Malthus's Essay is also persistently misunderstood. First published anonymously in 1798, the Essay systematically argues that population growth tends to outpace its means of subsistence unless kept in check by factors such as disease, famine, or war, or else by lowering the birth rate through such means as sexual abstinence. Challenging the widely held notion that Malthus's Essay was a product of the British and European context in which it was written, Alison Bashford and Joyce Chaplin demonstrate that it was the new world, as well as the old, that fundamentally shaped Malthus's ideas.

Hollander investigates the relation of Malthusian economics to that of the other great classicists - particularly Smith, Ricardo, J.B. Say, and the French physiocrats. He redefines our common perception of Malthus's method and character.

The first major study of population size and its tremendous importance to the character and quality of society, this classic examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources.

Thomas Robert Malthus’ 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population helped change the direction of economics, politics, and the natural sciences with its reasoning and problem solving. The central topic of the essay was the idea, extremely prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries, that human society was in some way perfectible. According to many thinkers of the time, mankind was on a course of steady improvement with advances set to continuously improve society and life for all. Malthus was a skeptic on this point, and, in a clear example of the skill of reasoning, set about constructing and marshalling a strong argument for a less optimistic view. Central to his argument were the laws of population growth and their relationship to growth in agricultural production; in his view the former would always outstrip the latter. This provided a strong argument that society was limited by finite resources – a closely reasoned argument that continues to influence economists, politicians and scientists today, as well as environmental movements. While Malthus’ proposed solutions have been less influential, they remain an excellent example of problem solving, offering a range of answers to the problem of population growth and finite resources.

Marking the 250th anniversary of his birth, this wide-ranging, interdisciplinary study reassesses Thomas Malthus's contested achievements and legacies.

The writings of Thomas Robert Malthus continue to resonate today, particularly An Essay on the Principle of Population which was published more than two centuries ago. Malthus Across Nations creates a fascinating picture of the circulation of his economic and demographic ideas across different countries, highlighting the reception of his works in a variety of nations and cultures. This unique book offers not only a fascinating piece of comparative analysis in the history of economic thought but also places some of today’s most pressing debates into an accurate historical perspective, thereby improving our understanding of them.

Essay from the year 2002 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.1 (A), Oxford University (New College), 4 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus published his first Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798 in order to refute the views expressed by utopian writers and philosophers who believed that society could be reshaped in a new form which would lead to a better life for all. Malthus thought that this would never work simply because there would never be enough food to support an idealistic society. In his works Malthus set up laws about society based on past and present evidence and he tried to make future predictions of populations. Although his work has been very influential, it was his fate to frame an analysis of the relationship between population, economy and society during the last generation to which it was applicable. There have been many studies to show whether Malthus was correct for his time and some limitations of his writings have been pointed out. Some of the main limitations of his works are concerned with his views of non-modern Western and non-modern societies.

Malthus' life's work on human population and its dependency on food production and the environment was highly controversial on publication in 1798. He predicted what is known as the Malthusian catastrophe, in which humans would disregard the limits of natural resources and the world would be plagued by famine and disease. He significantly influenced the thinking of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and his theories continue to raise important questions today in the fields of social theory, economics and the environment. With an introduction by Robert Mayhew.