'Presidential address. Revise that syllabus: Malthus and the historical imagination'.

This article provides a review of recent periodical literature on historical population studies published in 2024 and 2025, organized into five chronological sections: general methodological works, ancient and medieval, early modern, nineteenth century, and twentieth century. Key highlights include Deborah Valenze's critique of Malthus's population theory, emphasizing the role of food production and economic adaptation over Malthus's resource-driven model. In the ancient and medieval section, one study examines the shift in social capital in London (1330–1680) from guild-based trust to kinship-based networks, while another analyzes the limited success of England's post-Black Death labour laws (1349–1400) in regulating labour mobility, noting their eventual influence on later poor laws. The review aims to update researchers on methodological debates and historical population dynamics across periods.