The man we love to hate: it’s time to reappraise Thomas Robert Malthus

18 May 2016

Thomas Robert Malthus, who was born 250 years ago, became notorious for his ‘principle of population’.  He argued that, because poverty was inevitable, some people would not find a seat at ‘nature’s table’ and would perish. In a new book, historians at Cambridge and Harvard set the life and work of this contentious thinker within a wider context – and look in particular at his engagement with the world beyond Europe.

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Jewish refugees from Russia in Liverpool, 1882

Migration: Britain’s hospitable past

10 February 2014

In the midst of current controversies over immigration law and policy, Professor Alison Bashford discusses why it's important to recall Britain’s unique place in the international history of modern border control, suggesting that Britain’s principled politico-legal past calls for cautious celebration, rather than the more common critique.

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