An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, A view of its past and present effects on human happiness; with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions. By T.R. Malthus, A.M. late fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. In two volumes. Vol. I[-II]. First American [edition], from the third London edition

Washington City: Roger Chew Weightman, 1809. 2 volumes, 8vo. (8 1/4 x 5 inches). [Vol. 1] xvi, 510, xxxiv pp.; [Vol. 2] vii, 542 pp. Contemporary full tree calf, skilfully rebacked. Spines gilt ruled forming six compartments, lettering pieces in the second compartmenrs

Provenance: Possibly John Barclay (1749-1824), former Mayor of Philadelphia from 1791 to 1793

First American edition of a fundamental text of Modern Economics.

Thomas Robert Malthus was an English economist, cleric, and scholar influential in the fields of political economy and demography. Malthus came to prominence for his publication of the present work, first published in 1798. Between 1798 and 1826, Malthus published six versions of the essay, updating each edition to incorporate new material, to address criticism, and to convey changes in his own perspectives on the subject. Writing in response to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and William Godwin, specifically their approaches to the improvement of society, Malthus opposed the optimistic view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and, in principle, as perfectible. Malthus saw population growth as inevitable whenever conditions improved, thereby precluding real progress towards a utopian society: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man." Malthus laid the "theoretical foundation of the conventional wisdom that has dominated the debate, both scientifically and ideologically, on global hunger and famines for almost two centuries" (Daoud). He remains a much-debated writer.

Shaw 17975; Daoud, Ade, "Robbins and Malthus on scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency: The missing sociocultural element" in American Journal of Economics and Sociology 69.4: 1206-1229; Harvey, David, "Population, Resources, and the Ideology of Science"in Economic Geography 50(3): 256277.