The Malthus Factor: Poverty, Politics and Population in Capitalist Development
The Malthus Factor: Poverty, Politics and Population in Capitalist Development by Eric B Ross, published by Zed Books in October 1998, offers a critical examination of Malthusian thought and its impact on capitalist development policies. This 272-page volume explores how Malthusian ideas have historically defended capitalist political economy, particularly in the context of struggles for equality and human progress. The author reassesses significant historical events, including the origins of the Irish Famine, while also analyzing contemporary issues such as the Green Revolution and its implications for agricultural development.
Readers will find a thorough critique of how Malthusianism has shaped perceptions of overpopulation and its relationship to underdevelopment. The book discusses the ways in which environmental concerns are often misrepresented, portraying the poor not as victims of capitalist systems but as contributors to environmental degradation. Through this lens, Ross highlights the strategic role of Malthusian ideas in contemporary discourse, inviting readers to reconsider the narratives surrounding poverty and population in the context of capitalist development.
Official synopsis Publisher
This volume represents a major critique of the way Malthusian thinking has influenced capitalist development policy in the modern period, as well as in the past. It highlights the strategic role of Malthusian ideas in the defence of capitalist political economy when confronted by struggles for equality and human progress. The leading historical example the author takes offers a major reassessment of the origins of the Irish Famine. His contemporary case study focuses on the Green Revolution, which the author analyzes in terms of a broad Western strategy of capitalist agricultural development in the face of peasant insurgency.
Finally, the book examines how the political economy of underdevelopment is currently being obscured by alarm over the environmental impact of over-population, and how such Malthusian concerns represent the poor, not as victims of capitalist development, but as perpetrators of environmental destruction.
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