The first major study of population size and its tremendous importance to the character and quality of society, this classic examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources.
This 1992 volume makes available to a student audience one of the most controversial and misunderstood works published during the last two hundred years. Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population began life in 1798 as a polite attack on some post-French-revolutionary speculations on the theme of social and human perfectibility. It remains one of the most powerful statements of the limits to human hopes set by the tension between population growth and natural resources. This edition is based on the authoritative variorum of the mature versions of the Essay published over the period 1803 to 1826. The introduction, notes and bibliographic apparatus are aimed specifically at a modern audience interested in how Malthusianism impinges on the history of political thought.
Published in two volumes, these books provide a student audience with an excellent scholarly edition of Malthus' Essay on Population. Written in 1798 as a polite attack on post-French revolutionary speculations on the theme of social and human perfectibility, it remains one of the most powerful statements of the limits to human hopes set by the tension between population growth and natural resources. Based on the authoritative variorum edition of the versions of the Essay published between 1803 and 1826, and complete with full introduction and bibliographic apparatus, this edition is intended to show how Malthusianism impinges on the history of political thought, and how the author's reputation as a population theorist and political economist was established.
Why, asks Kelly Johnson, does Christian ethics so rarely tackle the real-life question of whether to give to beggars? Examining both classical economics and Christian stewardship ethics as reactions to medieval debates about the role of mendicants in the church and in wider society, Johnson reveals modern anxiety about dependence and humility as well as the importance of Christian attempts to rethink property relations in ways that integrate those qualities. She studies the rhetoric and thought of Christian thinkers, beggar saints, and economists from throughout history, placing greatest emphasis on the life and work of Peter Maurin, a cofounder of the Catholic Worker movement. Challenging and thought-provoking, The Fear of Beggars will move Christian economic ethics into a richer, more involved discussion.
This collection of essays examines the ways in which poverty was conceptualised in the social, political, and religious discourses of eighteenth-century Europe. It brings together experts with a wide range of expertise to offer pathbreaking discussions of how eighteenth-century thinkers thought about the poor. Because the theme of poverty played important roles in many critical issues in European history, it was central to some of the key debates in Enlightenment political thought throughout the period, including the controversies about sovereignty and representation, public and private charity, as well as questions relating to crime and punishment. The book examines some of the most important contributions to these debates, while also ranging beyond the canonical Enlightenment thinkers, to investigate how poverty was conceptualised in the wider intellectual culture, as politicians, administrators and pamphlet writers grappled with the issue.
The new edition of this classroom classic retains the organizing theme of the original text, presenting the development of thought within the context of economic history. Economic ideas are framed in terms of the spheres of production and circulation, with a critical analysis of how past theorists presented their ideas.