Overview

Thomas Robert Malthus's reputation has lately been rehabilitated in the fields of social biology, demography, environmentalism, and economics. In the midst of this current interest and with the chance to mark the occasion of the bicentenary of the first edition of the Essay on Population (1798), the contributors to this volume take this timely opportunity to examine the historical conditions in which Malthus constructed his theory, and in which the concept of a ‘Malthusian' and ‘Neo-Malthusian' philosophy first emerged. The essays redress the balance between Malthus's original argument, the immediate responses to Malthus by medics and theologians in Britain and on the Continent, and some of the ways that his ideas were later attacked, appropriated, or misrepresented. Included here are essays that not only re-evaluate the development of Malthus's theory, but also offer critical perspectives on the generation of the ‘Malthusian league' and debates about birth control in Britain and on the Continent, and Malthus's influence on the emergence of social science and Darwinian evolutionary biology.

Full Product Details

Author:   Brain Dolan
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Editions Rodopi B.V.
Volume:   59
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.50cm , Length: 23.00cm
Weight:   0.440kg
ISBN:  

9789042008410

ISBN 10:   9042008415
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   01 January 2000
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements. Notes on Contributors. Brian DOLAN: Introduction: Malthusian Selections. 1. Brian DOLAN: Malthus's Political Economy of Health: The critique of Scandinavia in the Essay on Population. 2. Timothy L. ALBORN: Boys to Men: Moral Restraint at Haileybury College. 3. Roy PORTER: The Malthusian Moment. 4. Robert M. YOUNG: 'Malthus on Man - In Animals No Moral Restraint'. 5. Brian YOUNG: Malthus Among the Theologians. 6. Christopher HAMLIN and Kathleen GALLAGHER-KAMPER: Malthus and the Doctors: Political Economy, Medicine, and the State in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1800-1840. 7. Lesley A. HALL: Malthusian Mutations: The Changing Politics and Moral Meanings of Birth Control in Britain. 8. Angus McLAREN: Reproduction and Revolution: Paul Robin and Neo-Malthusianism in France. 9. Antonello LA VERGATA: Biology and Sociology of Fertility: Reactions to the Malthusian Threat, 1798-1933. Index.

Reviews

...outstanding choice of contributors [...] steady editorial work... in: The British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 34, pt.3, No. 122, Sept. 2001 ...a far-ranging examination of some rarely explored topics. in: Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, Vol. 20, No. 1, 2003, pp.193-5

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