Debating Malthus

Introducing students to the place of population in environmental thinking

For centuries, thinking about the earth's increasing human population has been tied to environmental ideas and political action. This highly teachable collection of contextualized primary sources allows students to follow European and North American discussions about intertwined and evolving concepts of population, resources, and the natural environment from early contexts in the sixteenth century through to the present day.

Edited and introduced by Robert J. Mayhew, a noted biographer of Thomas Robert Malthus—whose Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), excerpted here, is an influential and controversial take on the topic—this volume explores themes including evolution, eugenics, war, social justice, birth control, environmental Armageddon, and climate change. Other responses to the idea of new "population bombs" are represented here by radical feminist work, by Indigenous views of the population-environment nexus, and by intersectional race-gender approaches. By learning the patterns of this discourse, students will be better able to critically evaluate historical conversations and contemporary debates.

Robert J. Mayhew is Fellow and Senior Tutor at Pembroke College, Cambridge and Honorary Professor of Historical Geography at the University of Bristol. He has published extensively on the history of Malthusian thought, including Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet (2014) and New Perspectives on Malthus (editor, 2016). He has also edited Malthus's selected works for Penguin Classics. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Foreword: The Many Moments of Malthusianism, by Paul S. Sutter

Acknowledgments

A Note Regarding Texts and Usage

Introduction: On an Overgrown Path—Linking Population and Environmental History

Part 1: Before Malthus

From Anon., Certayne Causes Gathered Together, Wherin Is Shewed the Decaye of England (1552)

From Giovanni Botero, The Cause of the Greatnesse of Cities (1635)

From Gabriel Plattes, A Discovery of Infinite Treasure (1639)

From John Graunt, Natural and Political Observations (1662)

From Charles de Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws (1750)

From David Hume, "Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations" (1742)

From Robert Wallace, A Dissertation on the Numbers of Mankind, in Antient and Modern Times (1753)

From Benjamin Franklin, "Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind" (1755)

From Thomas Short, A Comparative History of the Increase and Decrease of Mankind in England (1767)

From Richard Price, Observations on Reversionary Payments (1772)

Part 2: The Malthus Wars

From William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793)

From Marquis de Condorcet, Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind (1795)

From Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)

From William Godwin, Of Population (1820)

From Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1826)

From Thomas Robert Malthus, A Summary View of the Principle of Population (1830)

From Mary Shelley, The Last Man (1826)

Part 3: Evolving Debates

From Charles Darwin, "Extracts from an Unpublished Work on Species" (1839)

From Petr Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution (1902)

From W. Stanley Jevons, The Coal Question (1865)

From Alfred Russel Wallace, "Free-Trade Principles and the Coal Question" (1873)

From John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (1848)

From John Ruskin, Unto This Last: Four Essays on the First Principles of Political Economy (1862)

From Annie Besant, The Law of Population and Its Relation to Socialism (1886)

From John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919)

From Aldous Huxley, "What Is Happening to Our Population?" (1934)

From Josué de Castro, "The Cycle of the Crab" (1937)

Part 4: The Population Bomb

From William Vogt, The Road to Survival (1948)

From Radhakamal Mukerjee, "Population Theory and Politics" (1941)

From John Boyd Orr, The White Man’s Dilemma (1953)

From Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (1968)

From Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons" (1968)

From Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Malthus and America: A Report about Food and People (1974)

From Barry Commoner, "A Bulletin Dialogue on The Closing Circle: Response" (1972)

From Mahmood Mamdani, "The Ideology of Population Control" (1976)

From Amartya Sen, "Famines as Failures of Exchange Entitlements" (1976)

From Norman Borlaug, "The Green Revolution, Peace, and Humanity" (1970)

From Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons (1990)

From Julian Simon, "Resources, Population, Environment: An Oversupply of False Bad News" (1980)

Part 5: The Malthus Wars Today

From Jessica Tuchman Mathews, "Redefining Security" (1989)

From Robert D. Kaplan, "The Coming Anarchy" (1994)

From Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

From Jack A. Goldstone, "The New Population Bomb: The Four Megatrends That Will Change the World" (2010)

From John Beddington, "Professor Sir John Beddington's Speech at SDUK 09" (2009)

From Joel E. Cohen, "Population and Climate Change" (2010)

From Brian O'Neill et al., "Global Demographic Trends and Future Carbon Emissions" (2010)

From Paul J. Crutzen, "Geology of Mankind" (2002)

From Johan Rockström et al., "Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity" (2009)

From Committee on Women, Population, and the Environment, "Women, Population, and the Environment: Call for a New Approach" (1993)

From Betsy Hartmann, "Population, Environment and Security: A New Trinity" (1998)

From Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations (1999)

From Jade Sasser,"From Darkness into Light: Race, Population, and Environmental Advocacy" (2014)

Index