A boldly revisionist history of the first disputes in
nineteenth-century Britain over the role of economists in society
Economics now so dominates our understanding of how the world works
that some of the field's most influential concepts seem akin to
natural laws. Yet economists themselves are a relatively recent
species of intellectual, first emerging in the late eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. And like the economists of our own era,
the pioneering work of the early economists was decidedly a product
of its time. Before Method and Models looks back to the first
disputes in nineteenth-century Britain over the role of economists
in society to explain how the broader historical and intellectual
context has always shaped the field. Ryan Walter's boldly
revisionist history focuses on Thomas Robert Malthus and David
Ricardo, both of whom were attacked for producing a type of
knowledge that was perceived to be dangerous to society. Rather
than simply assuming that "classical political economy" always
existed, Walter recovers the historical circumstances that actually
shaped the development of their methods and concepts. The book
delves into the major political controversies of the time - the
Bullion Controversy and the Corn Laws debate - and the arguments
that Malthus and Ricardo advanced in order to shape the outcome. By
examining the hostile responses of Malthus and Ricardo's
contemporaries, the book shows how the major challenge facing the
first economists was to legitimize the activity of theorizing and
then reforming economic life. In a time when debate about commerce
and politics was conducted without our modern methods and models,
Malthus and Ricardo fought for the creation of the new field of
political economy and a role for their work at the center of
politics. Walter's reconstruction of the era reveals an exceedingly
sophisticated debate regarding the costs and benefits of reforming
both institutions and laws through the new science of political
economy.
General
Imprint: |
Oxford UniversityPress
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Series: |
Oxford Studies in the History of Economics |
Release date: |
October 2021 |
Authors: |
Ryan Walter
(Associate Professor)
|
Dimensions: |
242 x 160 x 22mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
272 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-19-760305-5 |
Categories: |
Books >
Business & Economics >
Economics >
Economic theory & philosophy
|
LSN: |
0-19-760305-X |
Barcode: |
9780197603055 |
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