Abstract
The principle which Robert Malthus enunciated with such force was a universal one capable of explaining the past, present, and future condition of mankind wherever it was to be found — that population expands up to the available subsistence. However, ‘Reputation’ argues that demography, in the modern sense of the term, was never Malthus's sole concern. His main claim to fame, or notoriety, rests on his decisive attempt to undermine the doctrine of human perfectibility and utopian speculations of an egalitarian or communistic nature. He still serves as the figure most responsible for revealing the anxieties that are supposed to lie at the heart of political and economic liberalism.
