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The Conversation USA

Misunderstood Malthus: The English thinker whose name is synonymous with doom and gloom has lessons for today

  • Written by Roy Scranton, Associate Professor of English, University of Notre Dame
imageA portrait of Thomas Malthus by John Linnell.Wellcome Collection via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

No one uses “Malthusian” as a compliment. Since 1798, when the economist and cleric Thomas Malthus first published “An Essay on the Principles of Population,” the “Malthusian” position – the idea that humans are...

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