The last issue of Storia del Pensiero Economico N.S. includes the   
written version of Frank Hahn's talk at the first Siena Meeting in the   
History of Economic Thought, a meeting preparatory to the foundation of   
the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. The conference   
was held at the Certosa of Pontignano near Siena, Italy, on September   
15-16, 1995. Hahn's talk, titled "General Equilibrium for Intellectual   
Historians," dealt with the historical origin and contemporary   
significance of general equilibrium. Although the substance of his   
thesis was already familiar to those acquainted with his writings, the   
candid and straightforward way in which he addressed an audience   
including many intellectual historians sparked a lively discussion. In   
particular Donald Winch commented that, in spite of Hahn's effort to   
provide a more elaborate view of Adam Smith than that presented in his   
classic article "Reflections on the Invisible Hand," Hahn's   
interpretation was still one-sided. A revised version of Winch's talk at   
the Siena meeting was published in the Scottish Journal of Political   
Economy two years later, but Hahn's talk remained unpublished. On the   
occasion of Frank Hahn's 80th birthday, which was celebrated at   
Churchill College, Cambridge, in May 2005, it seemed appropriate to ask   
Frank Hahn permission to publish the written version of the talk, and to   
introduce it by an interview on the current state of economic theory.  
  
The interview, conducted in January 2005, is reproduced at the following   
web-site, intended to honour Frank Hahn:   
http://www.econ-pol.unisi.it/hahn/welcome.htm  
  
Carlo Zappia