Concise History of World Population

Massimo Livi-Bacci is Professor of Demography at the University of Florence. A former president of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, his extensive research interests include contemporary demography as well as the history of population. He has taught and held fellowships at universities all over the world, including Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, the Collège de France, and the Colegio de México. His many publications include Population and Nutrition (1991), The Population of Europe: A History (Blackwell, 1999), Conquest: The Destruction of the American Indios (2007), and A Short History of Migration (2012).

• Preface ixAcknowledgment xi1 The Space and Strategy of Demographic Growth 11.1 Humans and Animals 11.2 Divide and Multiply 51.3 Jacopo Bichi and Domenica Del Buono, Jean Guyon, and Mathurine Robin 71.4 Reproduction and Survival 91.5 The Space of Growth 171.6 Environmental Constraints 191.7 A Few Figures 24Notes 27Further Reading 322 Demographic Growth: Between Choice and Constraint 332.1 Constraint, Choice, Adaptation 332.2 From Hunters to Farmers: The Neolithic Demographic Transition 352.3 Black Death and Demographic Decline in Europe 422.4 The Tragedy of the American Indios: Old Microbes and New Populations 472.5 Africa, America, and the Slave Trade 532.6 The French Canadians: A Demographic Success Story 572.7 Ireland and Japan: Two Islands, Two Histories 612.8 On the Threshold of the Contemporary World: China and Europe 67Notes 73Further Reading 843 Land, Labor, and Population 853.1 Diminishing Returns and Demographic Growth 853.2 Historical Confirmations 893.3 Demographic Pressure and Economic Development 943.4 More on Demographic Pressure and Development: Examples from the Stone Age to the Present Day 983.5 Space, Land, and Development 1013.6 Population Size and Prosperity 1083.7 Increasing or Decreasing Returns? 112Notes 113Further Reading 1174 Toward Order and Efficiency: The Recent Demography of Europe and the Developed World 1194.1 From Waste to Economy 1194.2 From Disorder to Order: The Lengthening of Life 1244.3 From High to Low Fertility 1314.4 European Emigration: A Unique Phenomenon 1374.5 A Summing Up: The Results of the Transition 1434.6 Theoretical Considerations on the Relationship between Demographic and Economic Growth 1464.7 More on the Relationship between Demographic and Economic Growth: Empirical Observations 150Notes 157Further Reading 1645 The Populations of Poor Countries 1675.1 An Extraordinary Phase 1675.2 The Conditions of Survival 1725.3 A Brief Geography of Fertility 1795.4 The Conditions and Prospects for Fertility Decline and Demographic Policy 1845.5 India and China 1915.6 Fertilia and Sterilia 2015.7 Explaining a Paradox 205Notes 212Further Reading 2226 The Future 2256.1 Population and Self‐Regulation 2256.2 The Numbers of the Future 2276.3 The North–South Divide and International Migration 2336.4 On Sustainability of Extended Survival 2426.5 The Moving Limits 2516.6 Non‐Renewable Resources and the Parable of Pauperia and Tycoonia 2556.7 Food for All? 2596.8 Space and Environment in a Smaller Planet 2656.9 Calculations and Values 270Notes 274Major Scientific Journals for Further Reading 281Index 283