Surfing the Past
Online Resources for Teaching the
History of Economic Thought
Ross B. Emmett
January 6. 2007
1
Student Search on “Schumpeter”
Wikipedia article on “Joseph
Schumpeter”
2
Student Search on “Schumpeter and innovation”
EconLib bio of Schumpeter
3
Wikipedia article on “creative destruction”
4
Student Search on “20th century innovation”
Ideafinder “20th Century
Innovation Timeline”
5
Student Search on “20th century innovation theory”
Found Davis & North “Institutional Change and American Economic
Growth” (1970) but didn’t think it relevant
6
Found Mowery & Rosenberg Paths of Innovation: Technological Change
in 20th Century America (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998): MSU has E-Book
rights, so student started reading it online.
7
Cliometrics Society
member bio for Tom
Nicholas
Eh.Net search on
“innovation”
JEH Article: Why
Schumpeter was Right
Student did not use MSU rights to article: gave up because he
would have to pay for the article
“At this point I feel I have sufficient information to write a paper on the
topic of 20th century innovation. I would begin the paper with the
ideas discussed in Paths of Innovation and incorporate Schumpeter’s
Creative Destruction theory into the paper near the midpoint. If I find I
need to do additional searches to help clarify my work, I believe I would
begin at either www.books.google.com or www.scholar.google.com”
What would you do to help this
student improve his search and find
resources appropriate to a paper
on Schumpeter’s views on
innovation in a capitalist society?
Answer 1: Go the Library!
• Library catalog is online!
• Electronic resources of library are available anywhere
• Google Scholar will find articles, and your library permissions
will give you access
• Google Book may give you access to the whole book
• Internet provides far easier access to the “general knowledge”
about a topic than traditional library searches: Google & Yahoo.
Answer 2: Read Schumpeter!
• Hard
to do online
• McMaster HET Archive has one article by Schumpeter, not
relevant to innovation theory
• http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/
• But many earlier economists are readily accessible online
at McMaster site and here:
• EconLib: http://www.econlib.org/library/classics.html
• Marx: http://marx.org/
• História do pensamento econômico:
http://www.pensamentoeconomico.ecn.br/
• Charles Gide Association: http://www.charlesgide.fr/
Answer 2b: Read More
About Schumpeter
• New School University site has lists of sites with
material about Schumpeter, and many more
economists or schools of economic thought:
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/
• And then standard electronic resources of library
Answer 3: Broaden or
Narrow Search
Have you taught students how to do searches?
A History of Economic Thought course is an
excellent course in which to have library staff teach
“information literacy” for economics students
Answer 4: Have Students
Construct Website as Part of
Research Assignment
If you can’t stop them, put them to work for you!
Have them assemble a website/blog that deals with
the person or topic in the history of economic
thought that they are researching.
Use student presentations, or peer-review of
websites as means of improving the resources they
gather.
http://www.msu.edu/~emmettr/fhk/
Answer 5: Add context & images
• Library of Congress
• Eh.Net
• Global Price & Income
History Group
• Duke’s Gallery of
Economists
• Roy Davies’ History of
Money site
• Peart & Levy’s Secret
History of the Dismal
Science
• And more like them!
World Bank Celebration of
Bretton Woods
Fleeming Jenkin’s image
of the circularity of trade
A Few Other Sites You Should
Know About
HES
Adam Smith Lives!
A History of Economic Thought
Blog
Email
List
The Economists’ Papers Project, Special Collections,
Duke University Library
Harvard’s Baker Library, Kress Collection & Special
Exhibits