Episode · Stuff You Should Know · 2025-06-17
Books mentioned on The Fencing Of The Commons
When England privatized its commons – lands that by custom belonged to all English to work and support themselves for centuries – it began the modern era, industrialization, wage labor, industrialization, or all of those things and more. See omnystudio.
Josh Clark discussed Utopia by Thomas More and An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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Utopia
Utopia by Thomas More is a foundational 1516 satirical and philosophical work that famously coined the term utopia and describes an imaginary island society.
Discussed“And so some people were like, "Hey, this is kind of messed up." Uh, one of the um most well-known voices uh was Thomas Moore who wrote his book Utopia in 1516 and he was pretty clearly against the sheep.”
Where to get it
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An Essay on the Principle of Population
An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus is a foundational 1798 economic and demographic text arguing that population growth tends to outpace agricultural production, leading to inevitable resource scarcity and societal competition.
Discussed“And a big one was Thomas Mouthys who wrote the essay on the principle of population.”
Where to get it
