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The Malthus factor : population, poverty and politics in capitalist development / Eric B. Ross.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ross, Eric B.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834.
- Malthus, T. R.
- Overpopulation--Economic aspects.
- Overpopulation.
- Poverty.
- Capitalism.
- Economic development.
- Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834--Influence.
- Local Subjects:
- Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834--Influence.
- Physical Description:
- 264 pages ; 23 cm
- Place of Publication:
- London ; New York : Zed Books ; New York : Distributed in the USA exclusively by St. Martin's Press, 1998.
- Summary:
- This book represents a major critique of the way Malthusian thinking has influenced capitalist development policy in the modern period, as well as in the past. Taking an historical and comparative view, it highlights the strategic role of Malthusian ideas in the defense of capitalist political economy when confronted by struggles for equality and human progress. The leading historical example the author takes offers a major reassessment of the origins of the Irish Famine. His contemporary case study focuses on the Green Revolution, which the author analyzes in terms of a broad Western strategy of capitalist agricultural development in the face of peasant insurgency. The book examines how the political economy of underdevelopment is currently being obscured by alarm over the environmental impact of over-population, and how such Malthusian concerns represent the poor, not as victims of capitalist development, but as perpetrators of environmental destruction.
- Contents:
- 1 Politics and Paradigms: The Origins of Malthusian Theory 8
- Toward and End of the Old Poor Laws 11
- Enclosures, Corn Laws and the Defence of Property 13
- Malthus in the Age of Industrialisation 21
- Toward a New Poor Law 26
- 2 Ireland: The "Promised Land" of Malthusian Theory? 31
- English Colonial Rule and the "Limits of Subsistence" 35
- The Ascendancy of the Potato 38
- Scarcity in the Irish Export Economy 39
- Clearances and "Over-population" 42
- The Making of the Great Famine 45
- The Aftermath of the Famine: The Clearances Continue 48
- The Crisis of 1879: Famine and Protest 50
- Modernisation and the Demise of Subsistence Agriculture 52
- 3 Malthusian Transformations: From Eugenics to Environmentalism 55
- The Emergence of Eugenics 59
- Immigrants and Radicals 66
- Eugenics, Birth Control and the Decline of Midwifery in the United States 69
- Toward a Eugenic State 71
- From Eugenics to Environmentalism 73
- The Political "Tragedy" of the Commons 73
- 4 Malthusianism, Demography and the Cold War 79
- The Birth of the Official Cold War 80
- Notestein, the Demographic Transition and the Cold War 87
- The Chinese Revolution and the Perils of Modernisation 91
- Militarising Malthus: The Career of William Draper 95
- 5 The Life and Death of Land Reform 105
- Wolf Ladejinsky and Pre-emptive Land Reform 106
- The Philippines, Land Reform and the Cold War 112
- Land Reform and Counter-Revolution in Guatemala 119
- Population, Cattle and Clearances in Central America 127
- Deforestation Instead of Land Reform 129
- 6 False Premises, False Promises: Malthusianism and the Green Revolution 137
- The Rockefeller Foundation and the Origins of the Green Revolution 139
- The Ford Foundation and the Cold War 144
- The Ford Foundation Goes to India 148
- Malthusianism in India 154
- 7 The Technology of Non-Revolutionary Change and the Demise of Peasant Agriculture 163
- The Seeds of the Green Revolution 164
- The Impact of the Green Revolution in Mexico 170
- The Migration of Rural Labour 175
- The Political Economy of US Farm Surpluses 177
- Agricultural Modernisation in Colombia 180
- Synthetic Nitrogen in War and Peace 187
- The TVA, Munitions and the Post-war Market for Fertilisers 189
- Rationalising the Green Revolution 194
- Contemplating an Alternative 197
- Conclusion: Malthusianism after the Cold War: The Struggle Continues 200
- The Globalisation of Garrett Hardin 201
- The Malthusian Ecology of Global Conflicts 205
- The New Malthusian Fears of Immigration 210
- The Contradictions of Sustainable Development 213
- Privatising the Global Commons 216
- Beyond Malthus 221.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [224]-253) and index.
- ISBN:
- 1856495639
- 1856495647
- OCLC:
- 39354327
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