The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business [Hardcover]

Johan Van Overtveldt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2007

When Richard Nixon said “We are all Keynesians now” in 1971, few could have predicted that the next three decades would result in a complete transformation of the global economic landscape. The transformation was led by a small, relatively obscure group within the University of Chicago’s business school and its departments of economics and political science. These thinkers — including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Robert Lucas, and others — revolutionized economic orthodoxy in the second half of the 20th century, dominated the Nobel Prizes awarded in economics, and changed how business is done around the world. Written by a leading European economic thinker, The Chicago School is the first in-depth look at how this remarkable group came together. Exhaustively detailed, it provides a close recounting of the decade-by-decade progress of the Chicago School's evolution. As such, it's an essential contribution to the intellectual history of our time.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At its narrowest definition, "Chicago School" refers to a movement in economics whose central figure was Milton Friedman. At its broadest definition, the term refers to a system of research encouraged at the University of Chicago since its founding in 1892, which has produced luminaries in the natural and social sciences and a distinctive style of exposition and debate. This book begins with both definitions and explores how the broad Chicago tradition attracted and shaped the researchers who built an intellectual movement that not only revolutionized economics and finance, but was deeply influential in law, sociology and government. Emphasizing the links between the lives and ideas of dozens of famous Chicago researchers, it spans many intellectual fields over more that a century. The sometimes dizzying result is held together by core principles that define the Chicago tradition: insistence that ideas must be supported by both theory and data, hard work and vigorous debate. In particular, the workshop system nurtured strong personalities who could build and defend orthodoxy, and dissenters of equal strength. As an intellectual or institutional history, this study is superficial due to its breadth, but its exploration of the interaction between institution and idea is unique and fascinating. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Van Overtveldt, director of a European think tank devoted to economics, describes the role economists at the University of Chicago have played in the development of economics as a science, including their dominance among Nobel Prize winners. He sets out to answer questions such as what is distinctive about the University of Chicago and what are the major contributions that give Chicago economists a prominent place in the twentieth century's history of economic thought; they have defended the free-market system for decades. He presents what he calls their Chicago Tradition, with characteristics such as a zealous work ethic; belief in economics as a true science that is highly relevant for everyday life; and preparedness to question everything. We learn about their influential economic thinkers, including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler and Robert Lucas, whose work transformed business practices around the world. Although traditional thinking is subject to challenge, the author makes a persuasive argument against concern that the university is losing its leading role in economics. Excellent historical perspective. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Agate B2; annotated edition edition (April 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932841148
• ISBN-13: 978-1932841145
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars story of the United States most influential school on economics, May 2, 2007

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business (Hardcover)

The economics school of the University of Chicago has long been recognized as "both a Mecca and a Rome for economic science for its many Nobel prize winners in economics, its number of professors and graduates holding high-level economic positions in the national government, and the impact of the economic theories associated with the school. So Van Overtveldt does not have to make the case for the University's unrivaled influence in this field of economics. Instead, he gets to the reason for this influence--and he finds two bases for this, namely the Chicago Tradition and the Chicago School. The Tradition is a cluster of "characteristics" exemplified by individuals at the school of economics. Among these are a strong work ethic and the criterion of academic excellence as the sole basis for advancement along with a belief in the relevance of economics to the lives of ordinary individuals. The Chicago School factor entails key economic ideas and principles which have proven reliable both as explanations for economic behavior and as guidelines for successful economic policies. The bedrock belief is that "free markets and the price mechanism are the most effective and desirable ways for a society to organize production and economic life in general." Milton Friedman, Theodore W. Schultz, Paul Samuelson, and Frederick Hayek are economists who have been associated with the Chicago school of economics in one way or another. Van Overtveldt succinctly summarizes their ideas, precepts, work, and influence for a picture of the U.S.'s foremost educational institution in the field of economics. The author is a director of a Belgium think tank.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but needs more focus, January 22, 2009

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Jim McCabe (Reston, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business (Hardcover)

As a Chicago MBA graduate and interested student of the Chicago School of free market economics and empirical analysis, i had high hopes for this book. There were some genuinely interesting insights and good analysis, especially relating to Becker and Stigler, and the intellectual movements their respective bodies of research launched. There was rather less about Milton Friedman than I expected, which leads to my main criticism.

I thought this book would be more about the practical influence of Chicago economics on the world at large, and tracing the ways in which the Chicago School (as opposed to, say, the Austrian School or Keynesian School) of economics impacted policies and the world. It certainly touches on that, but at times is seemed like more of a Leviticus-inspired, who-begat-whom description of all the economists who have studied or taught at Chicago. There were a number of scholars whose influence didn't seem to warrant discussion, yet there they were. I suspect many of those who are not acquainted with the scholarship at Chicago would be likely to wonder, at the book's conclusion, what's the big deal? Though it was an interesting read for me, I suspect there is a book yet to be written that is less a description of the evolution of the school's faculty, and more a discussion of the practical impact of the work of Chicago's scholars.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well researched coverage of a daunting subject, January 1, 2008

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therosen "therosen" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business (Hardcover)

At it's best, the history of economics is a daunting subject. Economics in action is more interesting, but even then it's usually only for the inspired. So what do we make of this history of the Chicago School? Certainly it's well researched. Most every economist of note at the University of Chicago is covered, as are their influences and how they fit in the broader tradition of the University. This history goes beyond the economics department to cover the subject (or "school's") include in business, law, sociology and public policy.

The key to appreciating this kind of book is you have to know what you're getting into. It's not enough to be an armchair economics afficianado - you have to care about the institution itself. This book is for people who saw "The Commanding Heights" and wanted to know more about the history of this free market school of thought. Although their are balanced arguements of this school, the subtitle should let you know where the author stands. This is economics history - a broad brush of ideas, their birth and their proponents. Not light reading, but great for armchair libertarian economists interested in ther personalities behind the economics.