TY - JOUR
T1 - Economic history or history of economics? A review essay on sylvia nasar's grand pursuit
T2 - The story of economic genius
AU - Ashenfelter, Orley
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - In this essay, I review Sylvia Nasar's long awaited new history of economics, Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius. I describe how the book is an economic history of the period 1850-1950, with distinguished economists' stories inserted in appropriate places. Nasar's goal is to show how economists work, but also to show that they are people too-with more than enough warts and foibles to show they are human! I contrast the general view of the role of economics in Grand Pursuit with Robert Heilbroner's remarkably different conception in The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. I also discuss more generally the question of why economists might be interested in their history at all.
AB - In this essay, I review Sylvia Nasar's long awaited new history of economics, Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius. I describe how the book is an economic history of the period 1850-1950, with distinguished economists' stories inserted in appropriate places. Nasar's goal is to show how economists work, but also to show that they are people too-with more than enough warts and foibles to show they are human! I contrast the general view of the role of economics in Grand Pursuit with Robert Heilbroner's remarkably different conception in The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. I also discuss more generally the question of why economists might be interested in their history at all.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84862489917&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84862489917&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1257/jel.50.1.96
DO - 10.1257/jel.50.1.96
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84862489917
SN - 0022-0515
VL - 50
SP - 96
EP - 102
JO - Journal of Economic Literature
JF - Journal of Economic Literature
IS - 1
ER -