Essay on the principle of population, or A view of its past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions / Thomas Robert Malthus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834.

Series:

Making of the Modern World, Part I : The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850.

The Making of the Modern World, Part I : The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Population.

Birth control.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 610 pages )

Edition:

A new edition, very much enlarged.

Other Title:

Essay on the principle of population, or, A view of its past and present effects on human happiness

An essay on the principle of population, or A view of its past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions

Essay on the principle of population, or A view of its past and present effects on human happiness, with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions

Place of Publication:

London : Ward, Lock & Co., 1804.

Summary:

The Essay on the Principal of Population, which I published in 1798, was suggested, as is expressed in the preface, by a paper in Mr. Godwin's Inquirer. It was written on the impulse of the occasion, and from the few materials which were then within my reach in a country situation. The only authors from whose writings I had deduced the principle, which formed the main argument of the Essay, were Hume, Wallace, Adam Smith, and Dr. Price; and my object was to apply it, to try the truth of those speculations on the perfectibility of man and society, which at that time excited a considerable portion of the public attention. In the course of the discussion I was naturally led into some examination of the effects of this principle on the existing state of society. It appeared to account for much of that poverty and misery observable among the lower classes of people in every nation, and for those reiterated failures in the efforts of the higher classes to relieve them. The more I considered the subject in this point of view, the more importance it seemed to acquire; and this consideration, joined to the degree of public attention which the Essay excited, determined me to turn my leisure reading towards an historical examination of the effects of the principle of population on the past and present state of society; that, by illustrating the subject more generally, and drawing those inferences from it, in application to the actual state of things, which experience seemed to warrant, I might give it a more practical and permanent interest. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Reproduction of original from Kress Library of Business and Economics, Harvard University.

Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 18640.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC:

65241053