WICKSELL, Knut.

Några ord om samhällsolyckornas vigtigaste orsak och botemedel med särskildt afseende på dryckenskapen ...

[Uppsala, Esaias Edquist, 1880]. 8vo, pp. [iv], 95, [1] blank; edges lightly browned; a good copy, uncut in the original printed wrappers, spine and one corner chipped. First edition of Wicksell’s controversial lecture Some Remarks on the Chief Causes of and remedies for Social ills, with Special Attention to Drunkenness. The lecture was inspired by his reading of Dr G. Drysdale’s Elements of Social Science (London 1854), which had the challenging subtitle Physical, Sexual, and Natural religion, An Explanation of the true causes of the three primary evils of society – Poverty, Prostitution and Celibacy. This thoroughly neo-Malthusian tract discussed matters unmentionable in polite society of the 1870s and 1880s, such as sex, methods of birth control, prostitution, the need for family planning etc. It was this work, together with his study of some of J. S. Mill’s essays, which induced Wicksell to give his talk. ‘His lecture in February 1880 met with a mixed reception, but a summary of it was reported in the press, and that led to demands that he repeat the lecture a week later in a much larger hall, which was filled to overflowing. There he attributed alcholism, widespread among factory workers, to the povery and monotony of their lives, crowded into cheap, insanitary housing. For young workers earning too little to afford marriage this led to their using the services of prostitutes. Among the remedies he suggested, he urged that the medical profession be assigned the task of disseminating information to the public about sound and safe birth control techniques, and for the public health authorities to set and enforce acceptable standards of sanitation and of room-space per occupant in housing in the factory districts of cities and towns. ‘The reaction to his address was strong. The press organs of the Young Socialists and of some of the student organizations praised him. Medical and temperance bodies ridiculed or reviled him, while the non-socialist press questioned his competence to give advice on the sensitive issues he had covered’ (Sandelin).See Gardlund, The Life of Knut Wicksell, pp. 48–73, and Sandelin, The History of Swedish Economic Thought, p. 78.

• GBP 450.00 > 其他币种价格
• 订书号：: HX345

• 书商: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)