TY - JOUR

T1 - The Malthus delusion

AU - Persson, Karl Gunnar

N1 - JEL classification: N1, N3

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Greg Clark is a master of the art of using one-liners in telling stories and Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World is no exception. It offers the Malthusian hypothesis of population growth leading to misery as an all-purpose vehicle for all human history, except for the last 200 years. However, his Malthusianism is at times more evangelical than empirical and analytical. He dismisses Angus Maddison's painstaking efforts (e.g. Maddison 2001, 2003) at providing an empirical basis for long-run income estimates (p. 19) as inconsistent with the logic of the Malthusian economy. When the historical record contradicts Greg Clark it is not allowed to stand in the way of his noble aim and declared intention of writing big history. At least in one respect he has succeeded: this book is the widescreen version of the Postan Thesis, although M. M. Postan (1966, 1972) is remarkably missing in the credits. The book is also big in rhetorical gestures, starting with the title, and a reader must be forgiven for occasionally asking whether the author should be interpreted literally, or whether statements should simply be deflated by common sense. I have decided to go nominal on Clark.

AB - Greg Clark is a master of the art of using one-liners in telling stories and Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World is no exception. It offers the Malthusian hypothesis of population growth leading to misery as an all-purpose vehicle for all human history, except for the last 200 years. However, his Malthusianism is at times more evangelical than empirical and analytical. He dismisses Angus Maddison's painstaking efforts (e.g. Maddison 2001, 2003) at providing an empirical basis for long-run income estimates (p. 19) as inconsistent with the logic of the Malthusian economy. When the historical record contradicts Greg Clark it is not allowed to stand in the way of his noble aim and declared intention of writing big history. At least in one respect he has succeeded: this book is the widescreen version of the Postan Thesis, although M. M. Postan (1966, 1972) is remarkably missing in the credits. The book is also big in rhetorical gestures, starting with the title, and a reader must be forgiven for occasionally asking whether the author should be interpreted literally, or whether statements should simply be deflated by common sense. I have decided to go nominal on Clark.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

U2 - 10.1017/S1361491608002219

DO - 10.1017/S1361491608002219

M3 - Journal article

VL - 12

SP - 165

EP - 173

JO - European Review of Economic History

JF - European Review of Economic History

SN - 1361-4916

IS - 2

ER -