ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Malthusian ideas and ideals in the British media of the 1830s and 40s
Author: Montaigne Maxine
This paper looks at the role that newspapers played in fostering and disseminating a public conception of Malthus after his death in 1834. Examining references to Malthus in both published books and periodical reviews (The Quarterly, Edinburgh, Westminster and Blackwood’s Edinburgh) reveals that Malthus’ ideas played only a minor role in the formal academic debate after his death. However this same period saw an increasing public engagement with the political economy of working class life, prominently the debates surrounding the Poor Law reforms. In the changing rhetoric of the popular sphere Malthus and Malthusianism became bywords for the perceived cruelty of politicians and economists and their indifference to the suffering of the poor.
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