Population and development in historical perspective.

This essay examines the history of population ideas in the postwar period and interprets revisionism a non-alarmist assessment of population consequences dominant among economists in the field. It then reviews how modern economic growth since the industrial revolution overcame the constraints of rapid population growth just as it overcame the many other limits which kept most of humankind at very low levels of living for its first 200000 years as a species. Progress could still however be stalled by population growth. Sections look at revisionism an history of ideas in the population debate and its future; population and development before the industrial revolution and why historical data are of importance for our current experience; lessons for todays developing countries in terms of market growth the growth of agricultural labor productivity labor force shifts in recent decades and consequences of rural inertia; and recent successes and failures in transition.