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Editor's notes:
There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name.* The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a scholarly expansion and generalization of the first.
We present the first and sixth editions here.
Following his success with his work on population, Malthus published often from his economics position on the faculty at the East India College at Haileybury. He was not only respected in his time by contemporaneous intellectuals for his clarity of thought and willingness to focus on the evidence at hand, but he was also an engaging writer capable of presenting logical and mathematical concepts succinctly and clearly. In addition to writing principles texts and articles on timely topics such as the corn laws, he wrote in many venues summarizing his initial works on population, including a summary essay in the Encyclopędia Britannica on population.
The first and sixth editions presented here are presented in full. Minor corrections of punctuation, obvious spelling errors, and some footnote clarifications are the only substantive changes.
For more information on Malthus's life and works, see New School Profiles: Thomas Robert Malthus. Other related sites:
The International Society of Malthus, and also
The Malthus Homepage, a site maintained by Nigel Malthus, a descendent.
Notes:
* Malthus's "real name" may have been Thomas Robert Malthus, but a descendent, Nigel Malthus, reports that his family says he did not use the name Thomas and was known to friends and colleagues as Bob. See The Malthus Homepage.
First edition: An Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other Writers.
Table of Contents
Sixth edition: An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of Evils which it occasions.
Table of Contents
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