Economic History and History of Capitalism (original) (raw)
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The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2009
In a new major work of critical recollection, Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine show how economics was once rich, diverse, multidimensional and pluralistic. The book details how political economy became economics through the desocialisation and dehistoricisation of the dismal science, accompanied by the separation of economics from other social sciences, especially economic history and sociology. It ranges over the shifting role of the historical and the social in economic theory, the shifting boundaries between the economic and the non-economic, all within a methodological context. Schools of thought and individuals, that have been neglected or marginalised, are treated in full, including classical political economy and Marx, the German and British Historical Schools, American institutionalism, Weber and Schumpeter and their programme of Sozialökonomik, and the Austrian School. Developments within the mainstream tradition from marginalism through Marshall and Keynes to general equilibrium theory are also scrutinised, and the clashes between the various camps from the famous Methodenstreit of the 1880s to the fierce debates of the 1930s and beyond brought to the fore. The prime rationale underpinning this account is to put the case for political economy back on the agenda. This is done by treating economics as a social science once again. It involves transcending the boundaries of the social sciences through the reintroduction and full incorporation of the social and the historical into the main corpus of political economy, by drawing on the rich traditions of the past. Economists, advanced students and researchers engaged in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of economic phenomena, scholars interested in the history of economic thought, economic historians and other social scientists will find this book of compelling interest.
Comparative and Historical Perspectives in Economic Sociology
Students nf economic behavior have long subscribed to the commonsense view that natural laws govern economic life. In the dscipline of economics, the prevahng view is that economic behavior is determined exogenously, by a force outside of society, rather than endogenously, by forces withln. Sclf-interest is that force, and it is exogenous ro society because it is inborn-part of human nature. Self-interest guides human behavior toward the most efficient means to particular ends. If economic behavior is instinctual, the reasoiling goes, we need to know little about society to prehct beha\inr.
Other Histories of Recent Economics: A Survey
History of Political Economy, 2016
As long as there did not exist an identified history of social science subfield, the uneasiness of economists about the definition of their discipline as a social science was of little consequence with regard to its place within the history of science. Things changed, however, in the 1990s, with the move away from disciplinary histories. If the history of the social sciences was more than the mere post hoc juxtaposition of disciplinary histories, the question could be asked as to the proper weight to be accorded to the history of economics within the new subfield of the history of the social sciences as whole. It is the purpose of this article to offer an answer to this question. It shows that though the history of recent economics has ben written primarily by its practitioners, what they write is not the whole history of recent economics. Other social scientists, notably sociologists, intellectual historians and historians of science have increasingly studied the past after the Second World War, offering new perspectives, asking new questions and providing different answers from that of economists qua historians of economics.
Economic Histories: Between Facts and Models (review essay)
The European Legacy, 2013
A review essay of the following three volumes: (1) The Poverty of Clio: Resurrecting Economic History. By Francesco Boldizzoni; (2) Post-Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics. By Stephen J. Collier; (3) Private Ratings, Public Regulations: Credit Rating Agencies and Global Financial Governance. By Andreas Kruck. Transformations of the State.
The Return of Economic History
Guillaume Calafat & Éric Monnet, « The Return of Economic History? », Books and Ideas , 30 January 2017. ISSN : 2105-3030., 2017
The recent success of books on economic history – at a time when this specialism often seems disregarded in universities – coupled with parallel developments in both history and economics gives hope for new links between the two disciplines. Both historians and economists regularly note that economic history has almost completely disappeared from universities, whether in terms of teaching or publications. This undeniably founded and well-documented observation applies to all countries. However, it stands in marked contrast with the recent public and/or academic success of a certain number of books on economic history. These include works as different, in terms of methodology, analysis, and conclusions, as those by, and, of course, Thomas Piketty or even Jared Diamond and his Collapse, which includes some analysis of economic history. 1 More generally, references to economic history substantially fuelled political and economic debate during the financial crisis (for an overview, see Barry Eichengreen's latest * We would like to express our thanks to Nicolas Delalande for his comments on an initial version of this text. 1 The aim of this text is not to provide an overview of current works in economic history and much less to provide an exhaustive bibliographical analysis. However, the following selection of references and authors can give the reader some initial pointers. Jared Diamond, Collapse.
2004
's status as one of the foremost historians of economic thought in the world is unquestionable. His work within economics is a legacy which shall benefit scores of future economists and historians. This collection of essays offers substantial and diverse contributions to the history of economic thought in honour of Professor Groenewegen. Figures whose work is analysed in terms of its impact on contemporary economic issues and policies include:
History of Economic Thought Economics 970
Mailbox: 2nd floor of Littauer Office Hours: By appointment Course Description This sophomore tutorial is an intensive course in the intellectual history of political economy. It will focus on exposing students to the great figures in the development of our discipline through a careful reading of their major works. Through this experience, students will not only improve their understanding of economic reasoning and analysis, but also gain a unique appreciation of how modern economics evolved into its present form. The first third of the course is devoted to classical economics. To set the scene for the rise of modern political economy, we will briefly discuss political debates on foreign trade and the national economy and early efforts at economic analysis in the 17th and 18th centuries, covering Mun, Petty, Hume, and Quesnay. We will then spend four weeks reading major works by Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Say, Mill, and Marx. This section of the course will pay particular attention to classical ideas of price and value, distribution and social classes, population growth, economic growth and long-run trends, gluts and economic crises, the economic role of the state, and international trade. The second third of the course covers the rise of neoclassicism. We will read works by Jevons, Menger, Marshall, Edgeworth, Cournot, Walras, Pareto, Pigou, and others. In the process, we will seek to understand the new vision, tools of analysis, and assumptions that defined neoclassical economics, and we will relate this material both to the first part of the course and to what students have learned in their intermediate theory classes. Among other topics, we will discuss marginalism, general equilibrium, and welfare economics.