This book is a sweeping global and intellectual history that radically recasts our understanding of Malthus's Essay on … the Principle of Population, the most famous book on population ever written or ever likely to be. Malthus's Essay is also … birth rate through such means as sexual abstinence. Challenging the widely held notion that Malthus's Essay was a product of …

Prologue: opening the door on Malthus's rollercoaster -- Before Malthus: population, economy and environment in … eighteenth century England -- Prophets of perfection: a revolutionary triptych -- The first inconvenient truth: Malthus's essay … and the quiet revolution of 1798 -- "Diarrhoea of the intellect": Malthus as the malign muse of romanticism -- Malthus and …