1-152-690 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Title page of Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus, 1806. Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), English cleric and economist, believed that population growth would outstrip food supplies, with disastrous results. He published his theory in his famous essay which first appeared in 1798, advocating population control as the solution to the impending crisis. Malthus had not anticipated the influence of the scientific and technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, however, and his predictions of doom proved false.