The State and the Stork
The Population Debate and Policy Making in US History
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

Introduction
Chapter 1. Foundations
Chapter 2. The Birth of the Modern Population Debate
Chapter 3. Population Depressed
Chapter 4. Population Unbound
Chapter 5. Managing the Great Society’s Population Growth
Chapter 6. The New Environmental State and the Zero Population Growth Movement
Chapter 7. Defusing the Population Bomb
Chapter 8. Population Aged
Epilogue
Notes
Index
“The State and the Stork takes up an enduring but often ignored question in modern American political history. How precisely have debates concerning the dynamics of population expansion affected the development of modern public policy and statecraft in the American experience? Strangely enough, there has been little in the way of recent scholarship that directly addresses this query—nor has there been a genuine effort to construct a narrative that spans the entirety of American history and squarely confronts it. It is this gap in the literature that Derek S. Hoff fills in a significant and original fashion.”
“After decades of failed efforts by the scientific community to alert the public to the environmental dangers of population growth and overpopulation, a first-rate historian has finally detailed both the arguments and their policy implications. Derek S. Hoff has taken a comprehensive look at the debates in the United States between those who realize as Malthus did that the growing population will sooner or later outstrip Earth’s capacity to support people and those who imagine that there are no limits to that growth. Everyone interested in population should read The State and the Stork. This is an incredibly timely book.”
Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association: Pacific Coast Branch Book Award
Won
Economics and Business: Economics--History
History: American History
Political Science: Public Policy
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