First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

From Books Back Cover: Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) is best remembered today for his theories on the menace of over-population; this first ever full-length biography shows him also in his role as one of the founders of classical political economy, and still a controversial figure in the history of economic thought. Based on exhaustive research among contemporary sources, it gives an account of Malthus's two careers, as an economist and as a professor at the East India College.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Annotation Originally published in 1957.

Population change and population forecasts are receiving considerable attention from governmental planners and policy-makers, as well as from the private sector. Old patterns of population redistribution, industrial location, labor-force participation, household formation, and fertility are changing. The resulting uncertainty has increased interest in forecasting because mere extrapolations of past trends are proving inadequate. In the United States of America popUlation forecasts received even more attention after federal agencies began distributing funds for capital infrastructure to state and local governments on the basis of projected future populations. If the national government had based those funding decisions on locally prepared projections, the optimism of local officials would have resulted in billions of dollars worth of excess capacity in sewage treatment plants alone. Cabinet-level inquiries concluded that the U. S. Department of Commerce should (1) assume the responsibility for developing a single set of projections for use whenever future population was a consideration in federal spending decisions and (2) develop methods which incorporate both economic and demographic factors causing population change. Neither the projections prepared by economists at the Bureau of Economic Analysis nor those prepared by demographers at the Bureau of the Census were considered satisfactory because neither method adequately recognized the intertwined nature of demographic and economic change. Against this background, the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the U. S.

According to current understanding, Malthus was hostile to an excess of population because it caused social sufferings, while Marx was favourable to demographic growth in so far as a large proletariat was a factor aggravating the contradictions of capitalism. This is unfortunately an oversimplification. Both raised the same crucial question: when considered as an economic variable, how does population fit into the analysis of economic growth? Even though they started from the same analytical standpoint, Marx established a very different diagnosis from that of Malthus and built a social doctrine no less divergent. The book also discusses the theoretical and doctrinal contribution of the liberal economists, writing at the onset of the industrial revolution in France (1840-1870), and those of their contemporary, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, who shared with Marx the denunciation of the capitalist system. By paying careful attention to the social, economic, and political context, this book goes beyond the shortcomings of the classification between pro- and anti-populationism. It sheds new light over nineteenth century controversies over population in France, a case study for Europe.