The Invention of Scarcity

“Importantly, Valenze shows in perhaps the most impressive part of her book that Malthus knew about the alternative strategies of subsistence on the margins, but chose to ignore them.”—Robert Mayhew, Times Literary Supplement “[Valenze’s] Malthus is pathological, . . . an ‘angry young man’ motivated by physical disability, sexual frustration and Oedipal revolt to regard nature as cruel and unforgiving. . . . Her message to environmentalists is clear: Malthus is the problem, not the solution.”—Oliver Cussen, London Review of Books “This is a searching, serious, and thoroughly coherent critique of Malthusian thought and one of the most interesting and energizing books that I have read in recent years.”—Steve Hindle, author of On the Parish? The Micro-Politics of Poor Relief in Rural England, c. 1550–1750 “Moving beyond existing scholarship, Deborah Valenze offers an engaging and convincing new perspective on Malthus.”—Timothy Alborn, author of All That Glittered: Britain’s Most Precious Metal from Adam Smith to the Gold Rush “The Invention of Scarcity is a provocative account of how deeply held foundational beliefs made a very intelligent man unable to see his world as it was.”—Thomas W. Laqueur, author of The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains “The consequences of Thomas Malthus’s thesis about populations and scarcity have been—and still are—devastating. Deborah Valenze brilliantly reveals what Malthus failed to see, especially about the resiliency of rural communities past and present.”—Samuel Moyn, author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World “Valenze’s brilliant unpacking of the racist assumptions of Malthus’ essay on population will go a long way towards laying to rest the ghost of Malthus that still haunts debates on human numbers and planetary hunger. The Invention of Scarcity is an exemplary exercise in decolonizing imperial political economy.”—Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of One Planet, Many Worlds: The Climate Parallax