MALTHUS TR

  • Era: 1766 - 1834
  • Location: England
  • Categories: SOCIAL SCIENCE, POLITICS

A professor of political economics (and also an Anglican minister), he is best known for his writings on population growth. In a warning against an easy optimism, he documented evidence that human population was expanding faster than the means of subsistence to sustain it. Although he did not advocate some of the extreme solutions subsequently put forward by ‘Malthusians’, he indicated that greater sexual abstinence and birth control were urgently needed to control the birth rate. His portrayal of a Feast, overcrowded by limitless invitations, proved powerful ammunition to both his sympathisers and critics.

Life

Writings