L’historienne Gerda Lerner était remarquable par son éloquence, sa perspicacité et son courage. Toujours prête à défendre l’importance de l’histoire dans sa quête de justice sociale, elle a consacré sa vie à démontrer que les femmes ont une histoire et que le fait de s’en rendre compte avait un impact sur la conscience collective. « Écrire l’histoire en pensant aux femmes », écrivait-elle dans l’un des essais qui composent le recueil intitulé Why History Matters: Life and Thought (1998), « po...

This article was developed from a paper given at an international conference on the influence of Malthus, held in Paris in January 1980; its purpose was to suggest the way in which the U.S. experience of Malthusianism and neo-Malthusianism was profoundly different from that in Europe . Thus the points made here were chosen specifically to hightlight the U.S.-European contrasts. The paper draws on materials and arguments in numerous articles and a book on the subject by myself. Since the book (...) is relatively easily available, I did not add reference notes to this speech except when drawing materials from sources not noted in the book. (shrink)