The argument of this book is addressed to those who desire to order their daily lives, in the homme, in the shop, in the factory, or on the farm, in conformity with the highest ethical standards, or in more familiar words, to live according to the will of God; and to them only. They constitute, I hope, a large proportion of mankind but be that as it ma, I know that there are at present among them many who are sorely perplexed in mind, and gravely disturbed in conscience, by the apparent contradiction between the precepts of ethics and the laws of economics. It is my earnest hope that in this book they mind some help towards the solution of their difficulties

This book represents, on the one hand , the fulfilment of a long-cherished hope; on the other, an act of tardy expiation. The crime for which expiation is offered is partly collective. The reproach which lies on historians at large is considered in the Prologue. The personal crime can be confessed only through the more intimate medium of a Preface. More than thirty years ago I published a little book on George Canning (John Murray, 1903) in which I did less than justice to Castlereagh. The error was not peculier to me, and might perhaps be regarded as venial in a budding politician and inexperienced historian, who had spent some of the happiest evenings of his Oxford life in the famous club dedicated to Mr. Canning's memory. Yet all these years it has lain heavy on a conscience too tender perhaps for an active participant in politics. That participation combined with other circumstances to delay the expiation even now inadequately made. But, however inadequate, it cannot safely be deferred much longer.

'I find The Revival of Laissez-Faire informative, especially as a survey of the ideas of the six economists, each of whom was no doubt at the front in the intellectual battle over laissez-faire. The book is a good source on an important slice of twentieth century economics for undergraduate history of economics course.' - J. Daniel Hammond, Journal of the History of Economic Thought In the 1970s, the Keynesian orthodoxy in macroeconomics began to break down. In direct contrast to Keynesian recommendations of discretionary policy, models advocating laissez-faire came to the forefront of economic theory. Laissez-faire no longer stood as an exceptional policy endorsed for rare occurrences of market clearing; rather it became the policy standard. This book provides the definitive account of this watershed and traces the evolution of laissez-faire using the cases of its proponents, Frank Knight, Henry Simons, Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan and Robert Lucas. By elucidating the pre-analytical framework of their writings, Sherryl Kasper accounts for the ideological influence of these pioneers on theoretical work, and illustrates that they played a primary role in founding the theoretical and philosophical use of rules as the basis of macroeconomic policy. A case study of the way in which interwar pluralism transcended to postwar neoclassicism is also featured.

Providing an account of the development of economic thought, this book explores the extent to which economic ideas are rooted in moral values. Adopting an approach rooted in ‘pragmatism’, the work explores key questions which have been considered by economists since the classical political economists. These include: what degree of priority ought to be granted to property rights among all individual liberties; whether uncertainties in economic life justify investing political authorities with the power to stabilize business cycles; whether it is better to trust entrepreneurial initiatives to resolve societal dilemmas or to centralize policy-making in the hands of a benevolent government. The chapters argue that economic thought has evolved from an emphasis on "sympathy" (as defined by Adam Smith) and that there has more recently been a rediscovery of the significance of sympathy reinvented as "fair reciprocity" in the wake of the emergence of behavioural economics and its connection to evolutionary psychology. This key book is of great interest to readers in the history of ideas, political and moral philosophy, and political economy.

The University of Chicago has been and continues to be one of the most important global centres for economics. With six chapters on themes in Chicago economics and 33 chapters on the lives and work of Chicago economists, this volume shows how economics became established at the University, how it produced some of the world’s best-known economists, including Frank Knight, Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas, and how it remains a global force for the very best in teaching and research in economics. With original contributions from a stellar cast, this volume provides economists – especially those interested in macroeconomics and the history of economic thought – with an in-depth analysis of Chicago economics.

This book argues that the work of the Austrian economists, including Carl Menger, Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, has been too narrowly interpreted. Through a study of Viennese politics and culture, it demonstrates that the project they were engaged in was much broader: the study and defense of a liberal civilization. Erwin Dekker shows the importance of the civilization in their work and how they conceptualized their own responsibilities toward that civilization, which was attacked left and right during the interwar period. Dekker argues that what differentiates their position is that they thought of themselves primarily as students of that civilization rather than as social scientists, or engineers. This unique focus and approach is related to the Viennese setting of the circles, which constitute the heart of Viennese intellectual life in the interwar period.

This book examines the concept of moral economy originally established by E.P. Thompson, focusing on the impact of religious norms on economic practice. With each chapter discussing a different empirical case study, the interrelations of the economy and religion are explored from antiquity through to the 20th century. The long-term trajectory and comparative perspective allows for moral economy to be seen in relation to ancient Greek commerce, medieval pawn-broking, Christian and Jewish economic ethics, urban social politics during the Plague, the Jesuit mission in Paraguay, the Ottoman Empire, religion in modern American capitalism, and Catholic attitudes toward taxation. This book aims to provide insight into how moral thinking about the economy and economic practice has evolved from a long historic perspective. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in economic history and cultural economics.

The theory of capitalism and of the economic order is the central topic of the German economic tradition in the 20th century. Capitalism has not only been the topic for Marxist economics and for the Frankfurt School but also for the Historical School and for the postmarxist theory of capitalism in Ordo- and Neo-Liberalism as well as in Solidarism. The question of the foundations of the economic order of the market economy and of capitalism as well as the problem whether a third path between capitalism and social ism is possible occupied this tradition from the Historical School to Ordo Liberalism and the theory of the social market economy. The theory of capitalism and of the social market economy as well as the critique and reform developed in this theoretical tradition is important for the theory of economic systems as well as for today's problems of the eco nomic order. Its relevance for the present world economy is visible in the discussions whether there exist different models of capitalism and whether they can be described as the Anglo-American and as the Rhenish model of capitalism influenced by the thought of the German economic tradition. Michel Albert, the author of this classification, gave the key-word in his book Capitalism against Capitalism. The papers of this book can help to clarify this debate by giving a first hand introduction to some of the main economic thinkers of capitalism.