Of population and false hopes: Malthus and his legacy.

My father told me about Malthus when I was quite young. He said that Malthus had believed wars and plagues were nature's way of dealing with overpopulation. Where he had learned about Malthus, I don't know. He held a good job in a corporate office, but had not completed high school and seldom read anything but the evening paper. His viewpoint was certainly not privileged, and I think it was probably typical of the way Malthus was understood at mid-twentieth century. But what Malthus really said was more complex; and his reputation and influence have varied greatly in the two hundred years since he penned An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). (Author's Introduction)