A Concise History of World Population

Name: A Concise History of World Population
Price: 52 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781394295746

by Massimo Livi-Bacci

7th Edition

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

(0 reviews)

History

Compare Prices

Best PriceVitalSourceLifetime Access$52.00 AmazonKindle$55.00 AlibrisLifetime Access$55.00

Book Details

Print ISBN	9781394295746
eText ISBN	9781394295753
Publisher	Wiley-Blackwell
Publishing Year	2025
Edition	7th Edition
Language	English
Pages	384

A Concise History of World Population, 7th Edition, presents a systematic examination of global human population dynamics from pre-agricultural societies to the present day. Designed for students and scholars in demography, history, sociology, and development studies, this textbook demonstrates how human societies experience periods of expansion, stagnation, and systemic decline.

The text synthesizes major demographic shifts across human history into distinct analytical arcs. It evaluates early structural developments such as the Neolithic demographic transition alongside acute mortality crises, focusing on events like the Black Death in Europe, microbe exposure among American Indios, and the demographic impacts of the transatlantic slave trade.

A defining structural feature of the work is its interdisciplinary approach, integrating tools from history, anthropology, ecology, economics, epidemiology, and political science. This multi-angled framework prepares readers to evaluate complex population patterns, offering structured support for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Population Studies, Demographic History, and Global History.

Chapter 1: The Space and Strategy of Demographic Growth
- • 1.1 Humans and Animals
- • 1.2 Divide and Multiply
- • 1.3 Jacopo Bichi and Domenica Del Buono, Jean Guyon, and Mathurine Robin
- • 1.4 Reproduction and Survival
- • 1.4.1 The Frequency of Births
- • 1.4.2 The Fecund Period Used for Reproduction
- • 1.5 The Space of Growth
- • 1.6 Environmental Constraints
- • 1.7 A Few Figures
- • Notes
- • Further Reading
Chapter 2: Demographic Growth: Between Choice and Constraint
- • 2.1 Constraint, Choice, Adaptation
- • 2.2 From Hunters to Farmers: The Neolithic Demographic Transition
- • 2.3 Black Death and Demographic Decline in Europe
- • 2.4 The Tragedy of the American Indios: Old Microbes and New Populations
- • 2.5 Africa, America, and the Slave Trade
- • 2.6 The French Canadians: A Demographic Success Story
- • 2.7 Ireland and Japan: Two Islands, Two Histories
- • 2.8 On the Threshold of the Contemporary World: China and Europe
- • Notes
- • Further Reading
Chapter 3: Land, Labor, and Population
- • 3.1 Diminishing Returns and Demographic Growth
- • 3.2 Historical Confirmations
- • 3.3 Demographic Pressure and Economic Development
- • 3.4 More on Demographic Pressure and Development: Examples from the Stone Age to the Present Day
- • 3.5 Space, Land, and Development
- • 3.5.1 The Occupation of Uninhabited or Sparsely Populated Regions
- • 3.5.2 Transformation and Land Reclamation
- • 3.5.3 External Expansion
- • 3.6 Population Size and Prosperity
- • 3.7 Increasing or Decreasing Returns?
- • Notes
- • Further Reading
Chapter 4: Toward Order and Efficiency: The Demography of Europe and the Developed World
- • 4.1 From Waste to Economy
- • 4.2 From Disorder to Order: The Lengthening of Life
- • 4.3 From High to Low Fertility
- • 4.4 European Emigration: A Unique Phenomenon
- • 4.5 A Summing Up: The Results of the Transition
- • 4.6 Theoretical Considerations on the Relationship between Demographic and Economic Growth
- • 4.6.1 Purely Demographic Factors
- • 4.6.2 Factors of Scale and Dimensional Factors in General
- • 4.6.3 The Stock of Knowledge and Technological Progress
- • 4.7 More on the Relationship between Demographic and Economic Growth: Empirical Observations
- • Notes
- • Further Reading
Chapter 5: The Populations of Poor Countries
- • 5.1 An Extraordinary Phase
- • 5.2 The Conditions of Survival
- • 5.3 A Brief Geography of Fertility
- • 5.4 The Conditions and Prospects for Fertility Decline and Demographic Policy
- • 5.5 India and China
- • 5.6 Fertilia and Sterilia
- • 5.7 Explaining a Paradox
- • Notes
- • Further Reading
Chapter 6: Microbes, Food, and Space, and Sustainability of Population Change
- • 6.1 Moving Limits
- • 6.2 Microbes, Virus, and Longevity: Biological Sustainability
- • 6.2.1 Biological Sustainability
- • 6.2.2 AIDS Epidemic: Sustainable for the Rich, Unsustainable for the Poor
- • 6.2.3 COVID-19: Unexpected Visitor
- • 6.3 Microbes, Virus, Longevity
- • 6.3.1 Political Sustainability
- • 6.4 Microbes, Virus, and Longevity: Economic Sustainability
- • 6.5 Food for All?
- • 6.5.1 First Topic: Food, Nutrition, and Hunger
- • 6.5.2 Second Topic: Productivity, Extension, and Intensification of Agricultural Systems
- • 6.5.3 Third Topic: Production, Consumption, and Greenhouse Gases
- • 6.6 Nonrenewable Resources and the Parable of Pauperia and Tycoonia
- • 6.7 Space and Environment in a Smaller Planet
- • 6.7.1 First Critical Issue: Deforestation and Intrusion in the Pluvial Forests
- • 6.7.2 Second Critical Issue: Increasing Human Settlement in the Coastal Areas
- • 6.7.3 Third Critical Issue: Megacities Energy Consumption and Pollution Champions
- • 6.7.4 Population and Environment: Adaptation and Mitigation
- • Notes
- • Further Reading
Chapter 7: The Future
- • 7.1 Population and Self-Regulation
- • 7.2 The Numbers of the Future
- • 7.3 The North-South Divide and International Migration
- • 7.3.1 Demographic Inequalities
- • 7.3.2 Economic Inequalities
- • 7.3.3 Migration Policies
- • 7.3.4 Climate Change
- • 7.3.5 Geography and Migratory Systems
- • 7.4 Downward Fertility and the Role of Policies
- • 7.5 Geodemography
- • 7.6 A Different World
- • 7.7 Calculations and Values
- • Notes
- • Further Reading