Customer Reviews

A Perilous Progress: Economists and Public Purpose in Twentieth-Century America.

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What Berstein sets out to do in this 190 page book is to trace the rise of economist as a profession. Starting with the formation of the AEA in the late 19th century, Berstein traces this process all the way up to modern times, though the lion's share is dedicated to the years leading up to the sixties.

The prose of the book is great, flowing easily without loosing rigour. The historical details and the depth of the research is purely amazing.

For me however, what is most marvelous about this book is the way in which it manages to show how neoclassical economics won out against other competing schools of thought as a direct result of WWII. Not Poperian scientific progress, but rather Kuhninan revolutions and McCloskean rhetorics explain why the neoclassical approach, with its emphasis on rigorous mathematics, came to rule supreme.

There are a few books on why economics became mathematical out there (Weintraub, Mirowski). In my opinion, this book is the best. This is a must read for anyone interested in the modern history of economic thought or the economic profession as such.