Module Outline ------------- Fall 2012
ECONOMICS 890
Special Topics History of 20th Century Economics I
Th, 1:25-3:55
GRAD Module Dates: TBa
Professor E. Roy Weintraub
Office: Social Sciences 07D
Phone and Voicemail: 660-1838; email: erw@duke.edu
"Nobody can separate the `internal' history of science from the `external'
history of its allies. The former does not count as history at all. At best it is
court historiography, at worst Legends of the Saints. The latter is not
history of `science', it is history." (Bruno Latour, The Pasteurization of
France, p. 218.)
This module introduces several themes in the history of 20th century economics, focusing
attention on the development of the discipline as a mainstream discourse in the United
States. One of the particular concerns of the course will be to suggest the ways, and the
history of how, a broad and varied set of approaches and practices early in the 20th
century evolved, by late in the 20th century, to a single mainstream, now called
neoclassical economics or some such variant, and a variety of marginalized discourses
mostly critical of neoclassical economics.
The class will meet twice a week. There will be required material to be read before each
class. All required reading is on either a) E-reserve at the course’s Blackboard site, or b)
linked to “Course Documents” on the course’s Blackboard site.
Course Requirements: Each class each student will prepare a one page typed response
to that classes readings, to be turned in at the end of that class. Those responses will be
the basis for the seminar discussion. 50% of each student’s course grade will be based on
those weekly response papers, and 50% will be based on participation in the seminar
discussion. Your attendance at the seminar is required. Unapproved absences will
result in a “0” for the participation grade.
1. Information session; discussion of reading responses, class resources, etc.
2. English Economic Thought Circa 1900. Chap 9, "Economic Orthodoxies", in
Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard Keynes, 1986 (e-reserve). {Background
Reading: Chap 2, "Cambridge Civilisation", in Robert Skidelsky, John Maynard
Keynes, 1986; Chap 8, "The Marginal Revolution" in Mark Blaug; Chap 4, "Leon
Walras" in Bruna Ingrao and Giorgio Israel, The Invisible Hand, 1990.}
3. The Development of American Economics. Bradley Bateman’s "Clearing the
Ground: The Demise of the Social Gospel Movement and the Rise of
Neoclassicism in American Economics" in Mary Morgan and Malcolm
Rutherford’s From Interwar Pluralism to Postwar Neoclassicism (1998) (ereserve); Malcolm Rutherford’s “American Institutional Economics in the
Interwar Period” in Samuels, Biddle, and Davis’s A Companion to the History of
Economic Thought (2003) (Blackboard Course Document). {Background
Reading: "Marginalism and Historicism in Economics: Chapter 6" of Dorothy
Ross’s The Origins of American Social Science (1991) (e-reserve); Bradley
Bateman’s “Reflections on the Secularization of American Economics” (Duke
Library e-journal) Journal of the History of Economic Thought 30, 1, March
2008; William Baumol’s “On Method in U.S. Economics a Century Earlier”
American Economic Review, 75 (6) 1985}
4. Business Cycles. Chapters 3 & 4 in Mary S. Morgan’s The History of
Econometric Ideas (1990). (e-reserve) {Background Reading: (business cycles);
Judy L. Klein’s Statistical Visions in Time (1997); Kyun Kim’s Equilibrium
Business Cycle Theory (1988}.
5. Keynes and Revolution? Chapter 7 of Francesco Louça’s The Years of High
Econometrics (Blackboard course document); “The General Theory of
Employment” by J. M. Keynes: The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Vol. 51,
No. 2 (Feb., 1937), pp. 209-223 (Blackboard Course Document). {Background
Reading: Chapter 15 of Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes, Volume 2 (e-reserve);
L. Klein’s 1947 The Keynesian Revolution, excerpts Blackboard; Patinkin’s 1965
Money, Interest, and Prices, excerpts Blackboard.}
6. General Equilibrium and The Neoclassical Synthesis. Chapter 6 in
Weintraub’s General Equilibrium Analysis: Studies in Appraisal, 1985, (ereserve); Chapter 4 of E. R. Weintraub’s Microfoundations (1979) (Blackboard
Course Document) {Background Reading: von Neumann (1945) "A Model of
General Economic Equilibrium" Review of Economic Studies, 13, pp. 1-9
(translation from the German 1937 Ergebnisse paper) Blackboard; McKenzie
(1954) "On Equilibrium in Graham's Model of World Trade and Other
Competitive Systems", Econometrica 22, pp. 147-161 Blackboard; Arrow and
Debreu (1954) "Existence of an Equilibrium for a Competitive
Economy" Econometrica 22, pp. 265-290. Blackboard; }
7. Economics and World War II. Leonard, Chaps 12-13 of Von Neumann,
Morgenstern, and the Creation of Game Theory (Blackboard Course
Document){Background Reading: Judy Klein (2011) "How I learned to Stop
Worrying and Start Satisficing" Working Paper. Blackboard; von Neumann, J.
(1928). "Zur Theorie der Gesellschaftsspiele." Mathematische Annalen 100: 295320 (English version: "On the Theory of Games of Strategy," trans. Sonya
Bargmann. In Contributions to the Theory of Games, vol 4, edited by A .W.
Tucker and R. D. Luce (Princeton, 1959), pp.13-42 Blackboard; von Neumann, J.
and O. Morgenstern (1944). The Theory of Games and Economic
Behavior. Princeton, NJ, Introduction, pp.1-43. Blackboard}
8. The Modern Economist: Engineer or Expert? Mary Morgan’s “Economics” in
Porter’s and Ross’ Cambridge History of Science Volume 7 (e-reserve).
9. The Economics Profession in the U.S., Britain, and France. Required
Reading: Introduction and Chapter 1 of Marion Fourcade’s Economists and
Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France
1890s to 1990s (2009) (Blackboard Course Document)).
10. Economics among the Social Sciences. Backhouse and Fontaine’s “Introduction:
Contexts of Postwar Social Science” (Blackboard Course Document).
11. Neoliberalism. Philip Mirowski (2009) "Postface: Defining Neoliberalism" in
Philip Mirowski and Dieter Plahwe (eds.) The Road from Mont Pelerin, pp. 417455, Blackboard. .
12. Heterodoxies. Mata’s “Migrations and Boundary Work: Harvard, Radical
Economists, and the Committee on Political Discrimination”.
13. Historiography. Weintraub’s “How Should We Write the History of 20th
Century Economics?(Blackboard Course Document); Weintraub (2011) "Lionel
W. McKenzie and the Proof of the Existence of a Competitive
Equilibrium" Journal of Economic Perspectives. Blackboard.