The Population Debate in American Popular Magazines, 1946-90

We have undertaken an extensive review of the American popular literature on population for two reasons. First, a survey of popular perspectives on population change serves as a vehicle for analyzing the structure of the arguments in the larger debate on the issue of population increase. Compared with the academic literature, the popular discussion places greater emphasis on reasons for viewing population growth with alarm or complacency, rather than on evidence supporting those claims. As such, the popular discussion is well suited for analyzing the changing structure of the political and intellectual debate over the desirability of intervention in population processes. Second, an understanding of the evolution of popular attitudes concerning rapid population growth is essential if demographers wish to influence future population policy. We contend that the creation, in the 1960s and later, of an institutional structure for understanding and altering population-related events was made possible in part by the formation of a consensus among the American public that rapid population growth poses a significant threat to collective well-being-not only to the countries expe