Synopsis

This book is about the intellectual defense against the French Revolution and all "radical" ideas that was developed after Malthus' pioneering Essay on Population was published in 1798. A political economy was developed in the years following which, combined with Anglican theology, was able to discover a middle ground between ultra-Toryism and radical reform. Certain ideas fundamental to modern economics also emerged as a by-product. Professor Waterman's main purpose is to complete the story of the "intellectual repulse of the Revolution" by describing this ideological alliance of political economy and Christian theology. In doing so he supplies the "missing piece of the jigsaw" in early nineteenth-century English intellectual history.