Contrary to conventional wisdom, Thomas Malthus in his An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) did not actually predict a population crisis, but instead merely showed that William Godwin had overlooked an important mathematical truth. Malthus’s treatise did contain a warning, however, that the ideals behind the French Revolution would spawn utopian schemes that would destroy vital social institutions—a prophecy whose realization makes the book worth reading today.
Malthus Was Not a Malthusian
By J. Daniel Hammond
This
article
appeared in
the Spring 2020 issue of The Independent Review.
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(9 pages)
| Other Independent Review articles by J. Daniel Hammond | |
| Winter 2020/21 | American Conservatism:Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition |
| Winter 2013/14 | What to Expect When No One’s Expecting:America’s Coming Demographic Disaster |
