Editing Malthusianism (section)

=== Early history ===
Malthus was not the first to outline the problems he perceived. The original essay was part of an ongoing intellectual discussion at the end of the 18th century regarding the origins of [[poverty]]. ''Principle of Population'' was specifically written as a rebuttal to thinkers like [[William Godwin]] and the [[Marquis de Condorcet]], and Malthus's own father who believed in the perfectibility of humanity. Malthus believed humanity's ability to reproduce too rapidly doomed efforts at perfection and caused various other problems.

His criticism of the [[working class]]'s tendency to reproduce rapidly, and his belief that this led to their poverty, brought widespread criticism of his theory.<ref name="Neurath 1994 7">{{cite book |title=From Malthus to the Club of Rome and Back |last=Neurath |first=Paul |year=1994 |publisher=[[M.E. Sharpe]] |isbn=978-1563244070 |page=5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZHx3GO_xLMC&pg=PA54 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref>

Malthusians perceived ideas of charity to the poor, typified by [[Tory]] [[paternalism]], were futile, as these would only result in increased numbers of the poor; these theories played into [[British Whig Party|Whig]] economic ideas exemplified by the [[Poor Law Amendment Act 1834]]. The act was described by opponents as "a Malthusian bill designed to force the poor to emigrate, to work for lower wages, to live on a coarser sort of food",<ref>{{cite book |first=Adrian |last=Desmond |author-link=Adrian Desmond |title=The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z7LeJ4i0-vAC&pg=PA126 |year=1992 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0226143743 |page=126 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> which initiated the construction of [[workhouse]]s despite riots and arson.

Malthus revised his theories in later editions of ''An Essay on the Principles of Population'', taking a more optimistic tone, although there is some scholarly debate on the extent of his revisions.<ref name="intellectual roots"/> According to Dan Ritschel of the Center for History Education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, <blockquote>The great Malthusian dread was that "indiscriminate charity" would lead to exponential growth in the population in poverty, increased charges to the public purse to support this growing army of the dependent, and, eventually, the catastrophe of [[national bankruptcy]]. Though Malthusianism has since come to be identified with the issue of general over-population, the original Malthusian concern was more specifically with the fear of over-population by the dependent poor.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.umbc.edu/history/CHE/InstPg/RitDop/Discovery-of-poverty-Malthusianism.htm |title="Outcast London" and the late-Victorian Discovery of Poverty: Malthusianism and the New Poor Law |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621105033/http://www.umbc.edu/history/CHE/InstPg/RitDop/Discovery-of-poverty-Malthusianism.htm |archive-date=21 June 2007}}</ref></blockquote>{{Eugenics sidebar}}
One proponent of Malthusianism was the novelist [[Harriet Martineau]] whose circle of acquaintances included [[Charles Darwin]], and the ideas of Malthus were a significant influence on the [[inception of Darwin's theory|inception of Darwin's theory of evolution]].<ref name=JvW>{{cite web |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/darwin.html |title=Charles Darwin: gentleman naturalist: A biographical sketch |first=John van |last=Wyhe |date=2006}}</ref> Darwin was impressed by the idea that population growth would eventually lead to more organisms than could possibly survive in any given environment, leading him to theorize that organisms with a relative advantage in the struggle for survival and reproduction would be able to pass their characteristics on to further generations. Proponents of Malthusianism were in turn influenced by [[Darwinism|Darwin's ideas]], both schools coming to influence the field of [[eugenics]]. [[Henry Fairfield Osborn Jr.]] advocated "humane birth selection through humane birth control" in order to avoid a Malthusian catastrophe by eliminating the "unfit".<ref name="intellectual roots"/>

Malthusianism became a less common intellectual tradition as the 19th century advanced, mostly as a result of technological increases, the opening of new territory to agriculture, and increasing international trade.<ref name="intellectual roots"/> Although a "[[conservation movement|conservationist]]" movement in the United States concerned itself with resource depletion and natural protection in the first half of the twentieth century, Desrochers and Hoffbauer write, "It is probably fair to say ... that it was not until the publication of Osborn's and Vogt's books [1948] that a Malthusian revival took hold of a significant segment of the American population".<ref name="intellectual roots"/>