DOCSLIB.ORG

Henry George and Francis Amasa Walker One Century Later Author(S): John K

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Henry George and Francis Amasa Walker One Century Later Author(S): John K American Economic Association Enemies or Allies? Henry George and Francis Amasa Walker One Century Later Author(s): John K. Whitaker Source: Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Dec., 1997), pp. 1891-1915 Published by: American Economic Association Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2729882 Accessed: 15-10-2018 00:54 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms American Economic Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Economic Literature This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:54:57 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Journal of Economic Literature Vol. XXXV (December 1997), pp. 1891-1915 Enemies or Allies? Henry George and Francis Amasa Walker One Century Later JOHN K. WHITAKER University of Virginia This paper has benefitted from valuable comments by the Journal's referees. THE YEAR 1897 marked the deaths of Walker was to be one of the earliest the two writers who first brought and bitterest critics of Progress and American economic thought to promi- Poverty, y6t there were important af- nence on the world scene.1 The publica- finities between that work and The tion of The Wages Question (1876) by Wages Question. Both works offered Francis Amasa Walker (born 1840) en- significant criticisms of the classical sured his acceptance as a founding mem- theory of distribution, especially the ber of the community of academic wage-fund doctrine, helping to pave the economists that was to burgeon in En- way for the subsequent marginal pro- glish-speaking circles in the 1880s and ductivity theory. Both accepted laisser- 1890s. In the United States, his aca- faire in a competitive regime as produc- demic doyenship was reflected in service ing a socially desirable outcome once as first president of the American Eco- two preconditions were met. The first nomic Association, 1886-92. Meanwhile, precondition, on which both authors the publication in 1879 of Progress and were broadly agreed, was that the state Poverty by the self-taught Henry George should limit protectionism and exercise (born 1839) soon ignited in the United control over monopolies or dominant States and other countries unprece- firms, even placing natural monopolies dented outpourings of both enthusiasm under public ownership. The goal of the and outrage at its radical claim that natu- other precondition was also shared. ral resources were rightly the property of This was to alleviate the chronic pov- all, and its radical proposal that a confis- erty and immiseration of a substantial catory "single tax" on pure rent should segment of the working classes. It was replace all existing taxes and tariffs. on the root cause of this problem that the two differed. For George it was the 1 Among home-spun Americans the name of private ownership of natural resources, Henry Carey (1796-1877) perhaps deserves men- while for Walker it was the positive de- tion but he was rarely taken seriously abroad. For a general view of pre-1870 American economics pendence of labor efficiency on real see Joseph Dorfman (1946, 1949). wages. This meant that any sustained 1891 This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:54:57 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 1892 Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXV (December 1997) reduction in wages could prove self jus- precludes detailed treatment of any one tifying-an efficiency-wage possibility topic. No more is intended than a selec- George acknowledged but deemed of tive and individual perspective on two only secondary importance. These diag- individuals who deserve to be remem- nostic differences led, of course, to bered even a century after their deaths radical differences in prescription and for the significant part they played in to Walker's vehement denunciation of the development of economic thought. George's taxation proposals, a vehe- George, indeed, still has discernable in- mence no doubt strengthened by scorn fluence in some quarters, but Walker's for the effrontery of a rank outsider in mark on current economic thought is no addressing basic issues of Walker's own longer identifiable. discipline. What especially provoked Walker was George's proposal that I. Contrasting Lives owners of natural resources be in ef- fect expropriated without compensation. Francis Walker's father, Amasa Walker's harsh reaction to this idea, and Walker (1799-1875), had risen from to the normative claims underlying it, lowly beginnings to become a successful colored his whole attitude to George. businessman, retiring at age 41 to pur- This prevented him from doing justice sue politics and the study and teaching to George's abilities as an economic of economics. With his son's assistance reasoner or recognizing similarities in he published a successful treatise, The their positive views. However, a meet- Science of Wealth (1866). Francis was ing of minds was hardly encouraged by educated at Amherst, where his father the antagonistic attitude toward the aca- taught econQmics, and was already pub- demic economists of the day that lishing magazine articles on economic George entertained from the outset. issues by age 17. The outbreak of civil Few later economists have led lives war terminated a budding legal career. as remarkable as those of our two Francis enlisted in the Union forces, authors, and the remaining discussion serving with the Army of the Potomac begins with brief biographical sketches in staff roles, and was wounded, then (Section I). After that the issues raised captured. Returning to civil life with in the preceding paragraph are ad- the rank of Brigadier General he there- dressed in sections which deal with: after was often referred to as "General contributions to distribution theory Walker" and always retained a strong (Section II), the problem of poverty interest in the commemoration and his- (Sections III and IV), and the "single tory of the units in which he served. Af- tax" (Section V). Further sections deal ter first turning to schoolteaching and more briefly with our authors' thoughts then journalism, meanwhile assisting his on the business cycle (Section VI) and father, he was tapped in 1869 by the on money and statistics (Section VII, then Commissioner of Revenue, econo- where Walker is the main exponent). mist David Ames Wells (1828-98), to The antagonism between George and take charge of the Bureau of Statistics the academic economists is considered in the U.S. Treasury. Walker's success next (Section VIII) and a summation there led to his appointment as superin- and assessment (Section IX) rounds out tendent of the U.S. census of 1870. In the paper. The appendix provides a 1871 he took on the Commissionership brief survey of the pertinent literature. for Indian Affairs, meanwhile retaining The extended range of the discussion his census duties, and in 1873 he began This content downloaded from 142.58.129.109 on Mon, 15 Oct 2018 00:54:57 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Whitaker: George and Walker 1893 to teach political economy and history Unlike Walker, who was comfortably at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. established from the start and ever He remained there until 1881, when fortunate in his smoothly unfolding he became president of the Massachu- career, George's life was a tale of setts Institute of Technology (MIT), a incessant struggle and false starts. He position he retained for the rest of his was born in Philadelphia of lower mid- life. dle class parents, supportive but unable The years at Yale were his most pro- to provide their first-born son with en- ductive from a scholarly viewpoint, giv- tree to a secure occupation. Henry was ing rise to his most significant books, intelligent but undisciplined. He aban- The Wages Question and Money in its doned school at age 13 and soon heard Relation to Trade and Industry (Walker the call of the sea, sailing at age 15 as 1876, 1879).2 But he nevertheless foremast boy on a voyage to Australia maintained strong links to government and India. Apprenticeship as a printer service, in particular serving as superin- came next and, though immediately un- tendent of the U.S. census of 1880. successful, gave him a skill that was to When Walker took over the presidency prove critical in his California years. of MIT it was a small, struggling institu- The lure of the West Coast drew him to tion. It prospered under his leadership, embark as steward on a voyage around although remaining extremely small by Cape Horn to San Francisco. He ar- today's standards, and Walker found rived in California in 1858 at age 19 there the time and energy to teach eco- with few connections and no settled nomics as well as to author a copious plans. He was to remain there until flow of publications. These spanned 1881, living hand to mouth, frequently economics, statistics, and an impressive in debt, his difficulties increased by an variety of other topics, educational, improvident but successful early mar- military, and civic. He died suddenly at riage and by a propensity to make ill- age 56 in the full tide of activity and timed investments in mining shares. He renown. turned his hand to many things, from a A man of enormous energy and prac- hapless retailing venture in British Co- tical ability, Walker's public distinction lumbia, where gold was rumored, to rested more on his wide range of itinerant agricultural labor, to hawking achievement than upon outstanding in- clothes-wringing machines, but the tellectual creativity.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Henry George's Labor Theory of Value: He Saw the Entrepreneurs and Workers As Employers of Capital and Land, and Not the Reverse Author(S): Robert J
    American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc. Henry George's Labor Theory of Value: He Saw the Entrepreneurs and Workers as Employers of Capital and Land, and Not the Reverse Author(s): Robert J. Rafalko Source: American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 48, No. 3 (Jul., 1989), pp. 311-320 Published by: American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3487369 . Accessed: 20/12/2013 16:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Journal of Economics and Sociology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 149.10.125.20 on Fri, 20 Dec 2013 16:34:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions HenryGeorge's Labor Theory of Value: He Saw the Entrepreneursand Workersas Employersof Capitaland Land, and Not the Reverse By ROBERTJ. RAFALKO* ABSTRACT.Henry George, the 19th century American economistand socialphi- losopher, saw the problem of protecting the working peoples' wages and jobs one of distributive justice. He attacked as fallacious the idea that equality of opportunityto workwas a 'privilege "accordedto labor.
    [Show full text]
  • Henry George: the Theory of Distribution in Progress and Poverty
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Faculty Publications 2007-07-01 Henry George: The Theory of Distribution in Progress and Poverty Phillip J. Bryson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub Part of the Economics Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Bryson, Phillip J., "Henry George: The Theory of Distribution in Progress and Poverty" (2007). Faculty Publications. 248. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/248 This Peer-Reviewed Article is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. HENRY GEORGE: THE THEORY OF DISTRIBUTION IN PROGRESS AND POVERTY Phillip J. Bryson, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA ABSTRACT The core of Henry George’s economic theory appeared in his most widely-read book, Progress and Poverty. On the basis of his dramatic “single tax” theory, his work became widely known and gained some avid followers who endeavored to base policy on it. But the work was also of value in George’s day and of interest in our day because of its economic content. George was not a part of the academic economics establishment of his day and his theory was of strictly classical methodology, but it still had much to commend it. A simple model to present his concepts in more modern form is developed. On the basis of the diagrammatic techniques involved, George’s theory of distribution is presented and evaluated. Keywords: Theory of distribution, classical economics, economic growth, wages fund, wages, interest, rent, poverty.
    [Show full text]
  • Henry George Antiprotectionist Giant of American Economics
    Economic Insights FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS VOLUME 10, NUMBER 2 Henry George Antiprotectionist Giant of American Economics Americans are again confronted, both Today’s policy discussions are often domestically and internationally, with the argued as if the issue under considera- clash of protectionist and free trade senti- tion is unique to our time. Because we often forget—or never knew—the rel- ment. A deeply divided U.S. House just evant history, we can fail to see that barely passed the Central American Free almost every policy argument has his- Trade Agreement. Politicians who a few years torical precedent. This is certainly true back supported the North American Free of the hot-button issues of globalization Trade Agreement now adamantly oppose and protectionism. Although many be- CAFTA. Americans are torn between enjoying lieve them unique to our day, antiglob- alization—with its concomitant protec- the benefits of globalization, with its tionist sentiments—salts human history. increased consumer choices and lower Mercantilist doctrine, which is pro- prices, and worrying about the costs to the tectionist, dates to mid-17th century nation that some claim come with global free Europe. As international trade grew, so, trade. too, did the demand for government There is nothing new about this clash of intervention to protect domestic manu- Library, The New York Science, Industry & Business Library, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Astor, factures by discouraging imports and ideas, as this latest points Henry George Economic Insights subsidizing exports. Even nations com- out; they have been vigorously debated mitted to obtaining the benefits of free before, most notably during the late 19th trade have not been immune to mer- ing in California a decade after the century.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Ware Course: Architecture as a Useful, Liberal, and Fine Art Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5sh8m1pk Author Block, Kevin Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California The Ware Course: Architecture as a Useful, Liberal, and Fine Art By Kevin P. Block A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Pheng Cheah, Co-Chair Professor Andrew Shanken, Co-Chair Professor David Henkin Associate Professor Winnie Wong Fall 2019 Copyright Page Abstract The Ware Course: Architecture as a Useful, Liberal, and Fine Art by Kevin P. Block Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric University of California, Berkeley Professor Pheng Cheah, Co-Chair Professor Andrew Shanken, Co-Chair This dissertation examines the academic career of William Robert Ware (1832-1915), an American architect who became the leading architectural educator in the late nineteenth century. Previous accounts of Ware have focused either on his work as a practicing architect or his role as a department builder at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Columbia University, where he imported the Beaux-Arts system of design instruction to the United States. This dissertation, in contrast, interprets archival documents and nineteenth-century architectural theory to situate Ware in relation to a number of core questions and concepts in the broader history of architectural expertise, including the construction of professional authority, the meaning of culture, the use of judgment, and the tension between creative expression and information processing.
    [Show full text]
  • The Neglect of the French Liberal School in Anglo-American Economics: a Critique of Received Explanations
    The Neglect of the French Liberal School in Anglo-American Economics: A Critique of Received Explanations Joseph T. Salerno or roughly the first three quarters of the nineteenth century, the "liberal school" thoroughly dominated economic thinking and teaching in F France.1 Adherents of the school were also to be found in the United States and Italy, and liberal doctrines exercised a profound influence on prominent German and British economists. Although its numbers and au- thority began to dwindle after the 1870s, the school remained active and influential in France well into the 1920s. Even after World War II, there were a few noteworthy French economists who could be considered intellectual descendants of the liberal tradition. Despite its great longevity and wide-ranging influence, the scientific con- tributions of the liberal school and their impact on the development of Eu- ropean and U.S. economic thought—particularly on those economists who are today recognized as the forerunners, founders, and early exponents of marginalist economics—have been belittled or simply ignored by most twen- tieth-century Anglo-American economists and historians of thought. A number of doctrinal scholars, including Joseph Schumpeter, have noted and attempted to explain the curious neglect of the school in the En- glish-language literature. In citing the school's "analytical sterility" or "indif- ference to pure theory" as a main cause of its neglect, however, their expla- nations have overlooked a salient fact: that many prominent contributors to economic analysis throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries expressed strong appreciation of or weighty intellectual debts to the purely theoretical contributions of the liberal school.
    [Show full text]
  • The Last Tax: Henry George and the Social Politics of Land Reform in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
    The Last Tax: Henry George and the Social Politics of Land Reform in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of History Michael Willrich, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By Alexandra Wagner Lough August 2013 This dissertation, directed and approved by Alexandra Wagner Lough’s Committee, has been accepted and approved by the Faculty of Brandeis University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of: DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Malcolm Watson, Dean Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Committee: Michael Willrich, Department of History Mark Hulliung, Department of History Daniel T. Rodgers, Department of History, Princeton University Copyright 2013 Alexandra Wagner Lough Doctor of Philosophy Acknowledgments This project properly began in 2004 when I was an undergraduate at the University of Pacific in Stockton, California and decided to write a history thesis on Henry George. As such, it seems fitting to begin by thanking my two favorite professors at Pacific, Caroline Cox and Robert Benedetti. Their work inspired my own and their encouragement and advice led me to pursue graduate work in history at Brandeis University. I am forever grateful for their support. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been admitted into the Ph.D. program in American History at Brandeis. Not only have I received top-notch instruction from brilliant faculty, but I also have received generous funding. I want to extend my gratitude to Rose and Irving Crown and the Crown family for the fellowship that financed my graduate education.
    [Show full text]
  • Nine Lives of Neoliberalism
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Plehwe, Dieter (Ed.); Slobodian, Quinn (Ed.); Mirowski, Philip (Ed.) Book — Published Version Nine Lives of Neoliberalism Provided in Cooperation with: WZB Berlin Social Science Center Suggested Citation: Plehwe, Dieter (Ed.); Slobodian, Quinn (Ed.); Mirowski, Philip (Ed.) (2020) : Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, ISBN 978-1-78873-255-0, Verso, London, New York, NY, https://www.versobooks.com/books/3075-nine-lives-of-neoliberalism This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/215796 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative
    [Show full text]
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics Working Paper Series
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Economics Working Paper Series The Rise and Fall of Economic History at MIT Peter Temin Working Paper 13-11 June 5, 2013 Rev: December 9, 2013 Room E52-251 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142 This paper can be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network Paper Collection at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2274908 The Rise and Fall of Economic History at MIT Peter Temin MIT Abstract This paper recalls the unity of economics and history at MIT before the Second World War, and their divergence thereafter. Economic history at MIT reached its peak in the 1970s with three teachers of the subject to graduates and undergraduates alike. It declined until economic history vanished both from the faculty and the graduate program around 2010. The cost of this decline to current education and scholarship is suggested at the end of the narrative. Key words: economic history, MIT economics, Kindleberger, Domar, Costa, Acemoglu JEL codes: B250, N12 Author contact: [email protected] 1 The Rise and Fall of Economic History at MIT Peter Temin This paper tells the story of economic history at MIT during the twentieth century, even though roughly half the century precedes the formation of the MIT Economics Department. Economic history was central in the development of economics at the start of the century, but it lost its primary position rapidly after the Second World War, disappearing entirely a decade after the end of the twentieth century. I taught economic history to MIT graduate students in economics for 45 years during this long decline, and my account consequently contains an autobiographical bias.
    [Show full text]
  • Working Paper No. 40, the Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking
    Portland State University PDXScholar Working Papers in Economics Economics 12-15-2019 Working Paper No. 40, The Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking Justin Pilarski Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/econ_workingpapers Part of the Economic History Commons, and the Economic Theory Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Pilarski, Justin "The Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking, Working Paper No. 40", Portland State University Economics Working Papers. 40. (15 December 2019) i + 16 pages. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Working Papers in Economics by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. The Rise and Fall of Georgist Economic Thinking Working Paper No. 40 Authored by: Justin Pilarski A Contribution to the Working Papers of the Department of Economics, Portland State University Submitted for: EC456 “American Economic History” 15 December 2019; i + 16 pages Prepared for Professor John Hall Abstract: This inquiry seeks to establish that Henry George’s writings advanced a distinct theory of political economy that benefited from a meteoric rise in popularity followed by a fall to irrelevance with the turn of the 20th century. During the depression decade of the 1870s, the efficacy of the laissez-faire economic system came into question, during this same timeframe neoclassical economics supplanted classical political economy. This inquiry considers both of George’s key works: Progress and Poverty [1879] and The Science of Political Economy [1898], establishing the distinct components of Georgist economic thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Economics and Finance: the Evolution of Economic Science
    MIT 150 | Economics and Finance: The Evolution of Economic Science POTERBA: Good morning. As many of you may guess, I am not, as your program suggests, Dean Deborah Fitzgerald. She will be joining us and welcoming all of you this afternoon as we start into the second half of our program today. But as Jim Poterba and one of the organizers of the events that we will be going through in the next day and a half, I want to thank you all for braving the snow this morning. I want to thank David and the members of the MIT 150 committee for selecting the Economics Department in the Sloan School to sponsor this symposium. And I would like to thank both the dean of the Sloan School and the dean of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences for agreeing to support this exciting adventure. When MIT was founded in 1861, the field of political economy was already taking shape as a well-defined academic discipline. The leading text was John Stuart Mill's Principles of Political Economy, which had been published in 1848. And although in the very early years, economics was not yet on the radar screen of MIT, it arrived soon in the history of the young institution. In 1880, when Francis Amasa Walker was recruited from Yale to come and serve as the third president of MIT, that was a rather unusual thing for an institution of science and technology because Walker was, actually, one of, along with Irving Fisher at Yale, the most distinguished economists in the United States at that point.
    [Show full text]
  • A Preface to Neoclassical Legal Thought
    University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law 6-28-2011 A Preface to Neoclassical Legal Thought Herbert J. Hovenkamp University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons, Business Organizations Law Commons, Corporate Finance Commons, Economic Policy Commons, Economic Theory Commons, Finance Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Race Commons, Legal History Commons, Policy History, Theory, and Methods Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, and the Tax Law Commons Repository Citation Hovenkamp, Herbert J., "A Preface to Neoclassical Legal Thought" (2011). Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law. 1867. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/1867 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law by an authorized administrator of Penn Law: Legal Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Hovenkamp, Neoclassical Legal Thought in the United States July 2011, Page 1 A Preface to Neoclassical Legal Thought Herbert Hovenkamp * Introduction This preliminary essay explores the roots of fundamental changes in American legal thought that began to take hold in the United States after Reconstruction. It is written in contemplation of a larger project that is not yet finished. The term “neoclassical legal thought” seems appropriate to describe this set of developments for a number of reasons. First, neoclassical legal thought overlapped with but also succeeded its predecessor, classical legal thought.
    [Show full text]
  • Marshall: a Professional Economist Guards the Purity of His Discipline
    4 Marshall: A Professional Economist Guards the Purity of His Discipline / BY ROBERT F. HEBERT I. Background In 1883 the name of Henry George was more famiMar on both sides of the Atlantic than that of Alfred Marshall. Marshall was to achieve lasting recognition a decade later as the foremost British economist of his day, but George's Progress and Poverty had already achieved an unusual measure of success for a work in political economy. Sales of that volume reached one hundred thousand in the British Isles a few years after its appearance in a separate English edition. This popularity (in a period when "best sellers"- were less well received than now) was undoubtedly one measure of the British sentiment for land reform—a sentiment that had been carefully nurtured for several decades, especially by John Stuart Mill and Alfred R. Wallace. Additional sympathy for George and his ideas was also stirred by his controversial arrests in Ireland in 1882.' Most economists of the late nineteenth century paid little attention to the lively subject of land reform, but Marshall was an exception. Intellectually, he was akin to John Stuart Mill—both were simultaneously attracted and repelled by socialist doctrine. Marshall admitted a youthful "tendency to socialism," which he later rejected as unrealistic and perverse in its effect on economic incentives and human character .2 His early writings, however, clearly identify him as a champion of the working class. Marshall cultivated this reputation in his correspondence, and he continued to take socialism seriously, even after his "flirtation" with it ended. In the winter of 1883 Marshall gave a series of public lectures at Bristol on "Henry George's subject of Progress and Poverty." These lectures have only recently become accessible to American readers.' In retrospect they appear to be Marshall's first deliberate attempt to renounce his socialist "ties," such as they were.
    [Show full text]