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What if every hope for a better society runs up against the need to feed more people?
In An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Robert Malthus asks whether people can multiply faster than their food supply. His argument challenges writers who believe society can become nearly perfect. At stake is a hard question: what limits human progress when every life depends on enough to eat?
Malthus turns to travellers’ accounts and the records of past societies to test his principle. He challenges William Godwin’s belief in limitless human improvement and questions whether relief for the poor can deepen poverty. His claims open an argument about population, subsistence and reform that economists, reformers and scientists debate for generations.
What you’ll discover
- People and their food Follow the reasoning behind Malthus’s claim that population presses against the means of feeding it.
- Forces that hold numbers back Explore the checks Malthus argues must limit population when food cannot keep pace.
- Evidence from past societies See how travellers’ accounts and historical records supply examples for a sweeping argument.
- The challenge to perfection Consider why Malthus disputes Godwin’s hope that removing unjust institutions allows unlimited human improvement.
- Relief under scrutiny Examine his controversial claim that the English Poor Laws may worsen the hardship they address.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy sweeping arguments about society, poverty and progress will love this book. It also suits those curious about the origins of modern population debates.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Plans for happiness face material limits
- Multiplication overtakes growth by addition
- Population checks carry human costs
- More money does not create food
- Abundant land releases population growth
- Equality cannot remove the food constraint
- Improvement does not mean unlimited improvement
- Face hardship and work to lessen it
- Ask what limits a plan faces
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An Essay on the Principle of Population
by Thomas Robert Malthus · 1798
Malthus argues that people multiply faster than food, and tests the claim against Godwin's dream of equality.
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“At the very time when the best men in both worlds were talking only of progress, Malthus saw rocks ahead.”
In short
What if the brightest plan for human happiness fails for a reason as plain as arithmetic? In 1798 Thomas Robert Malthus published an essay that says just that.
An Essay on the Principle of Population at a glance
- Reading time
- About 3 h 20 min2 h 40 min fast, 4 h slow
- Length
- 48,000 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1798by Thomas Robert Malthus
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Two plain facts hold up the argument
Malthus begins by clearing away guesswork. A writer may claim that man will one day become an ostrich, he says, but must first show that necks are lengthening and feathers are growing. He wants to reason only from what experience shows.
From experience he takes two facts. First, food is necessary for human life. Second, the passion between the sexes is necessary and will stay much as it is now. Godwin had guessed that desire might fade away. Malthus replies that no progress has been made toward that end in thousands of years.
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Details
- First published
- 1798
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 55 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Malthus, Thomas Robert. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population.
Malthus, T. R. (2026). An essay on the principle of population. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population (Original work published 1798)
Malthus, Thomas Robert. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population.
@book{malthus2026essay,
author = {Malthus, Thomas Robert},
title = {An Essay on the Principle of Population},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-essay-on-the-principle-of-population},
note = {First published 1798}
}
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What is An Essay on the Principle of Population about?
It argues that human numbers tend to grow faster than food, so societies are held in check by misery and vice, including the unhappiness of delayed marriage. Malthus uses this idea to question hopes for a perfectly equal society.
What does geometric and arithmetic growth mean in Malthus?
Geometric growth means doubling again and again, such as one, two, four, eight. Arithmetic growth means adding the same amount each time, such as one, two, three, four. Malthus says population follows the first pattern and food the second.
Who are Godwin and Condorcet in the essay?
They are the thinkers Malthus argues against. William Godwin and the Marquis de Condorcet imagined a future of reason, equality and lengthening life, and Malthus uses their books to test his population argument.
The author
Thomas Robert Malthus
1766–1834 · English economist
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) was a British political economist and Anglican clergyman. He was born in Surrey, England, and studied at Cambridge. He published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798. From 1805, he taught at the East India Company College. He died in Bath, England.
“When unchecked, population grows geometrically. Food supply grows only arithmetically.”
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