No book in the history of British economic thought has caused a more heated and lasting controversy than Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population. So provocative was it deemed upon publication in 1798, that Malthus dramatically altered its tone for the second edition of 1803. The impact of his orignal ideas was, however, still so strong that the controversy continued to rage for the next thirty years and beyond.

This set contains the wide breadth of responses that met Malthus' work, focusing on several aspects of the debate: from the claim that Malthus was exagerratedly gloomy and pessimistic, to the accusation that his theory denied the goodness of God.