Thomas Robert Malthus is remembered for the gloomiest theory proposed in just about any discipline. The story begins in 1793, when the English journalist and philosopher William Godwin published a book called An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice. It predicted a utopian future and became a classic of philosophical anarchism.
One of its admirers was a wealthy landowner named Daniel Malthus. He debated its merits with his adult son, Thomas, a clergyman and Cambridge scholar. Few family debates end as gainfully. Thomas wrote down his counterargument, which was published in 1798 as An Essay on the Principle of Population.
