Thank a lot! So far, I had only found the galor/Weil papers at AER in 1996 and 2000, respectively.

A good introduction is the textbook by David Weil, "Economic Growth" which has a chapter on population growth and a comparison of the Malthusian vs. the Solow growth model. Briefly, the Malthusian theory of population growth emphasizes the relationship between the size of population and growth, while the Solow theory emphasizes the relationship between population growth rates and economic growth. The main difference before and after the industrial revolution is the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy, where in addition to a shift from agricultural to manufacturing, land becomes less important than physical capital in producing output.