Week 3 suggested essay topics:

"What explains divergent population trends in Britain and France in the 18th and 19th centuries?"

Or perhaps "In which of Britain and France did ordinary working people enjoy a higher standard of living?""

Note: material found in other parts of the course on child labour, education, real wages, inequality, popular protest, and consumer demand could be relevant for an essay on living standards.

Cinnirella, Francesco, "Optimists or Pessimists? A Reconsideration of Nutritional Status in Britain, 1740-1865," EREH, vol. 12 (2008), pp. 325-354.

Cummins, Neil, "Marital fertility and wealth during the fertility transition: rural France, 1750-1850," EHR, vol. 66 (2013), pp. 449-476.

de la Croix, David and Faustine Perrin, "How far can economic incentives explain the French fertility and education transition?" European Economic Review, no. 108 (2018), pp. 221-45. I have not yet read this one.

Feinstein, Charles, "Pessimism Perpetuated: Real Wages and the Standard of Living in Britain During and After the Industrial Revolution," JEH, vol. 58, no. 3 (1998), pp. 625-658.

Goldstone, J., "The Demographic Revolution in England: a Re-examination," Population Studies, vol. 40 (1986), pp. 5-33.

Griffin, Emma, "Diets, Hunger and Living Standards During the British Industrial Revolution," Past and Present, no. 239 (2018), pp. 71-111. Another recent contribution I haven't read.

Heyberger, Laurent, "Toward an anthropometric history of provincial France, 1780–1920", Economics and Human Biology, vol. 5 (2007), pp. 229-54.

Komlos, John, "An Anthropometric History of Early-Modern France, 1666-1766", EREH, vol. 7 (2003), pp. 159–189.

Lindert, Peter, "Poor relief before the Welfare State: Britain versus the Continent, 1780–1880," EREH, vol. 2 (1998), pp. 101-140.

--- , "Unequal Living Standards", Ch. 14 in R. Floud and D. McCloskey (eds.), The Economic History of Britain Since 1700, 2^nd ed., vol. 1 (Cambridge: CUP, 1994), pp. 357-386

Meredith, David and Deborah Oxley, "Food and fodder: Feeding England, 1700-1900," Past and Present 2013 (forthcoming).

Milanovic, Branko, "Level of income and income distribution in mid-18th century France, according to Francois Quesnay," working paper available on-line.

Mokyr, Joel. The Enlightened Economy. Chs. 13 ("Demographic Transition") and 18 ("Living Standards and Inequality"), pp. 279-308, 449-474.

Morrison, C. and W. Snyder, "The Income Inequality of France in Historical Perspective," EREH, vol. 4 (2000), pp. 59-83.

Nicolini, Esteban, "Was Malthus right? A VAR analysis of economic and demographic interactions in pre-industrial England," EREH, vol. 11 (2007), pp. 99-121. Quite technical.

Schubert, H. and D. Koch, "Anthropometric History of the French Revolution in the Province of Orleans," Economics and Human Biology, vol. 9 (2001), pp. 277-83.

Voth, Hans-Joachim, "Living Standards and the Urban Environment," Ch. 10 in CEHMB, vol. I. pp. 268-94.

Weir, David, "Parental Consumption Decisions and Child Health During the Early French Fertility Decline, 1790-1914," JEH, vol. 53 (1993), pp. 259-274.

--- , "Life Under Pressure: France and England, 1670-1870," JEH, vol. 44 (1984), pp. 27-47.

Williamson, Jeffrey, "Urban Disamenities, Dark Satanic Mills, and the British Standard of Living Debate," JEH, vol. 41, no. 1 (March 1981), pp. 75-83.

Wrigley, E.A., "British Population During the ‘Long’ Eighteenth Century, 1680-1840", Ch. 3 in CEHMB, vol. I. pp. 57-95.

Primary

Malthus, T.R., An Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798. (Read the first edition, 1798, skimming the chapters devoted to a critique of other thinkers.)

Faucher, Leon. Manchester in 1844: Its Present Condition and Future Prospects, 1844, pp. 1-20, 85-152.

Birkbeck, Morris. Notes on a Journey through France in 1814, 99-115.