The marginalist revolution of the late nineteenth century consolidated what Karl Marx and Piero Sraffa called ‘vulgar economy’, bringing with it an emphasis on a scarcity theory that replaced the classical surplus theory. However, the classical political economy of Adam Smith and David Ricardo has been revived within the Cambridge economic tradition. This book looks at how different branches of the Cambridge economic tradition have focused on various aspects of this revival over time. The author shows that classical political economy is distinct from vulgar political economy in terms of its economic, social, and ethical theory, with each difference resting on an issue of ontology. Structured in three parts, the book examines the central contested aspects of these theories, namely the nature of value, the relationship between human beings and social structure, and the nature of human wellbeing. The Cambridge Revival of Political Economy will be relevant to students and researchers within the fields of political economy, history of economic thought, politics and philosophy.

Political economy and Christian theology coexisted happily in the intellectual world of the eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century they came to be seen as incompatible, even mutually hostile. In the twentieth century they went their separate ways and are no longer on speaking terms. These fourteen essays by Anthony Waterman serve as snapshots of the history of this estrangement, and illustrate the gradual replacement of the discourse of theology by that of economics as the rational framework of political debate. Others have recently shown that both political economy and Christian theology are important, though somewhat neglected elements in modern intellectual history. This book is the first to combine these two lines of inquiry.

An international set of eminent scholars examine the contemporary relevance and continuing contribution of Marx's work. This indispensable volume presents Marx's theories in a new light, both for specialists who might think they already know everything about Marx and for a new generation of readers who are approaching his work for the first time.

The text contains no explicit reference to mathematical apparatus which has rendered eminient service in economics, especially in recent years. Some of the simpler applications of algebraic symbols and geometrical diagrams to econcomic problems are presented in an appendix. Those to whom these forms of expression tend rather to confuse than to clarify the reasoning which they embody, may thus readily spare themselves this confusion; while those to whom symbols are familiar and helpful will not be deprived of the aid to precision of conception and of argument which can hardly be afforded in equal degree by any other means.

The Market and Its Critics, first published in 1988, considers the reaction of socialist writers to the growth of the market economy in nineteenth century Britain, and examines in detail the diverse elements of the critique which they formulated. Dr Thompson looks at the theoretic and thematic continuities and discontinuities over the century, structuring his study around the idea of a changing socialist response to the market economy. Much of the literature in question is comprehensive, perceptive and acute. However, the writers invariably discounted the possibility of the market playing a role in a future socialist or communist commonwealth. The solutions they posited to the problem were inapplicable to the increasingly industrial economy of the time. It was this that left their writing vulnerable to attack, and which had profound consequences both for the fate of the socialist political economy in nineteenth century Britain and its subsequent evolution in the twentieth century.

The catastrophic economic, social and political crisis of our time calls for a new and original critique of political economy - a rethinking of Marx's project in the very different conditions of twenty-first century capitalism. Stiegler argues that today the proletarian must be reconceptualized as the economic agent whose knowledge and memory are confiscated by machines. This new sense of the term ‘proletarian' is best understood by reference to Plato's critique of exteriorized memory. By bringing together Plato and Marx, Stiegler can show how a generalized proletarianization now encompasses not only the muscular system, as Marx saw it, but also the nervous system of the so-called creative workers in the information industries. The proletarians of the former are deprived of their practical know-how, whereas the latter are shorn of their theoretical practice, and both suffer from a confiscation of the very possibility of a genuine art of living. But the mechanisms at work in this new and accentuated form of proletarianization are the very mechanisms that may spur a reversal of the process. Such a reversal would imply a crucial distinction between one's life work, originating in otium (leisure devoted to the techniques of the self), and the job, consisting in a negotium (the negotiation and calculation, increasingly restricted to short-term expectations), leading to the necessity of a new conception of economic value. This short text offers an excellent introduction to Stiegler's work while at the same time representing a political call to arms in the face of a deepening economic and social crisis.

Cambridge University has and continues to be one of the most important centres for economics. With nine chapters on themes in Cambridge economics and over 40 chapters on the lives and work of Cambridge economists, this volume shows how economics became established at the university, how it produced some of the world's best-known economists, including John Maynard Keynes and Alfred Marshall, plus Nobel Prize winners, such as Richard Stone and James Mirrlees, 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 the first in-depth analysis of Cambridge economics.

The Cambridge tradition of economics is a heritage to draw upon as alternative to neoclassical economics ' more of a legacy than a fully-fledged system of thought. Moreover, the label "Keynesians" is somewhat misleading: while the centrality of Keynes' ideas is beyond dispute, there is the parallel line of thought provided by Sraffa' s revival of classical political economy, which J. Robinson was greatly influenced by in the later part of her life, and which some would consider as relevant to identification of the "Cambridge tradition ...