The Academic Scribblers (ebook)

Argumento de The Academic Scribblers (ebook)

The Academic Scribblers offers a thoughtful and highly literate summary of modern economic thought. It presents the story of economics through the lives of twelve major modern economists, beginning with Alfred Marshall and concluding with Paul Samuelson and Milton Friedman. In a very real sense, this book picks up where Robert Heilbroner's classic The Wordly Philosophers leaves off. Whereas Heilbroner begins with Smith and ends with Joseph Schumpeter, Breit and Ransom bring the story of modern American and British economic theory up to the 1980s. The Academic Scribblers is an elegant summary of modern economic policy debate and an enticement into a happy engagement with the "dismal science" of economics."

Originally published in 1998.

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"[The Academic Scribblers] is a compact, lucid survey of the ideas of an even dozen British and American economists.... A splendid book. It should be read by every undergraduate student of economics."--William H. Miernyk, Social Science Quarterly

"As a guide to the intellectual origins of many hotly debated current and proposed economic policies, The Academic Scribblers is an outstanding success."--J. Bernard Burnham, National Review0Foreword Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Ch. 1 Introduction 1 Pt. 1 The Pillars of Neoclassical Economics Ch. 2 The Intellectual Gantry of Neoclassical Economic Policy 7 Ch. 3 Alfred Marshall - Exemplar of Neoclassical Economic Thought 19 Pt. 2 The Eclipse of Neoclassical Economics Ch. 4 Thorstein Veblen - The Abrogation of Consumer Sovereignty 31 Ch. 5 Arthur Cecil Pigou - Externalities in Production 43 Ch. 6 Edward Hastings Chamberlin - The Wastes of Competition 53 Ch. 7 John Maynard Keynes - Unemployment in Equilibrium 65 Pt. 3 The New Economics Ch. 8 Alvin H. Hansen - The American Keynes 81 Ch. 9 Paul A. Samuelson - From Economic Wunderkind to Policymaker 107 Ch. 10 Abba P. Lerner - The Artist as Economist 137 Ch. 11 John Kenneth Galbraith - Economist as Social Critic 161 Pt. 4 The New Neoclassicism Ch. 12 Frank H. Knight - Philosopher of the Counterrevolution in Economics 193 Ch. 13 Henry C. Simons - Radical Proponent of Laissez-faire 207 Ch. 14 Milton Friedman - Classical Liberal as Economic Scientist 223 Ch. 15 Conclusion 263 Afterword: The Academic Scribblers after Twenty-Five Years 267 Index 275