Customer Reviews

Economics and Its Enemies: Two Centuries of Anti-Economics

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This book is a very fascinating look at what the author, William Coleman, calls "anti-economics". In Coleman's view mainstream economics has constantly been shadowed by a loose group of critics and nay-sayers who object to all that mainstream economics has come to represent.

As Coleman demonstrates the objections to economics are legion. On the Right of the political spectrum, mainstream economics is despised for its endorsement of the pursuit of individual self-interest which appears to be a threat to the existing social order. On the Left, economists are despised precisely because they are seen as the apologists for the existing social order. And this is only the beginning. Others object to economists views of man as a utility maximizer, man as a rational animal or economists apparent approval of profits over people...ect, ect.

Coleman's book is best read as a kind of catalouge and perhaps summary analysis of the ideas of opponents of mainstream economics. The range of views he presents and the depth of his research alone is impressive. The bibliography of works Coleman provides in and of itself is an invaluable resource to anyone interested in the history of economic ideas or intellectual history in general.

However, as a defense of mainstream economics it is much less impressive. First, it is never clear exactly what Coleman means by "economics" or in his words "the grand tradition". In some cases he appears to be defending the idea of a free market capitalism, in other cases he appears to be defending the idea of economic man and sometimes Coleman's concerns seem to be focused more on defending Enlightenment ideas of human nature than economics per se. By failing to be more precise in exactly what he is in fact defending Coleman is able to lump a wide body of thought into the category of "anti-economics" but sometimes he is patently unfair in his apprasials. Just because someone had objections to economics does not mean they were "anti-economists". Some were working to revise or change the course of economics as a discipline rather than destroy it outright.

Also, Coleman tends to dismiss all objections to idea of economic man and other ideas associated with mainstream economics even when those objections seem to have some validity. While generally my personal sympathies are with free market capitalism and with mainstream economics, I do not think one can pretend that these two venerable institutions are beyond criticism or lack areas for improvement. Some of the criticisms to economics Coleman includes and refutes seem not entirely invalid to me. For example, the idea of a society of people rationally pursuing their own self-interests is I think preferable in principle, but one could posit situations in which this prinicple might be extended too far to the detriment of society at large.

Whatever shortcomings Coleman's work might have it is still a highly enjoyable, fascinating and informative read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a serious (or even casual) student of economic thought and the history of ideas.