Open Access‘Beyond the facts’: how a U.S. sociologist made John Stuart Mill into a ‘Neo‐Malthusian’
Author(s) -
Stack David
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
historical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1468-2281
pISSN - 0950-3471
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2281.12246
Subject(s) - mill , birth control , interpretation (philosophy) , sociology , history , economic history , law , political science , philosophy , population , demography , family planning , archaeology , linguistics , research methodology
This article explores the roots of the characterization of John Stuart Mill as a ‘Neo‐Malthusian’. Making extensive use of the Norman E. Himes Papers, held at the Countway Library of Medicine, it shows that Himes, a U.S. sociologist and committed birth control campaigner in the inter‐war period, framed a characterization of Mill that endures to this day. The article demonstrates how and why Himes repeatedly took his arguments ‘beyond the facts’, partly in response to a dispute with the British birth control campaigner Marie Stopes, and established the practice of referring to Mill as a ‘Neo‐Malthusian’. The article concludes by arguing that the term impedes more than it aids our understanding and Mill scholars would benefit from stripping away decades of accreted interpretation.