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Published by EH.NET (December 2001)
David M. Levy, _How the Dismal Science Got Its Name: Classical Economics
and the Ur-Text of Racial Politics_. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 2001. xv + 320 pp. $52.50 (cloth), ISBN: 0-472-11219-8.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Stanley L. Engerman, Departments of Economics and
History, University of Rochester. <[log in to unmask]>
David M. Levy, Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University
and Research Associate of the Center for the Study of Public Choice, has
written numerous articles and books on the history of economic thought,
works that are most imaginative in their arguments. _How the Dismal Science
Got Its Name_ is a collection of twelve related essays, six previously
published, concerned primarily with several leading mid-nineteenth century
English critics of capitalism, contrasting their ideology with that of some
of the major classical economists.
The major villain for Levy is Thomas Carlyle, who originated the title of
"Dismal Science" for economics, as well as providing other criticisms of
the economic beliefs of that time. Other literary figures under attack are
John Ruskin, Charles Dickens, and Charles Kingsley. The basic charge is
that these men, critics of capitalism, were racists, anti-Semites, and
elitists. Levy's thought was first moved in this direction by comments of
Earl Hamilton at the University of Chicago. These points are not themselves
novel -- as readers of Thomas Carlyle's 1849 essay, "Occasional Discourse
on the Negro Question," long have known. (The word Nigger had been
substituted for Negro for an 1853 reprinting.) That essay, and the rebuttal
it drew from John Stuart Mill in 1850, have become staples of the debates
on British West Indian emancipation and racial differences in the
nineteenth century. What Levy has done is to make these arguments not an
isolated aberration as some Carlyle defenders argue, but rather a central
part of his views as they relate to capitalist society. Thus. according to
Levy, there is a clear link between proslavery racism and anticapitalist
thought that has been overlooked by many subsequent scholars. They have
been led to classify the classical economists as "enemies of humanity"
rather than being humanistic and egalitarian as Levy, and several other
authors, contend. But, of course, to show that Smith and the earlier
classical economists were more humane than some believe currently is not
that novel an argument, nor does it mean that today's classical economists
are necessarily to be considered as "friends of humanity."
It is clear that the critiques of capitalism have come from at least two
different ideological directions. There is the ega1itarian critique,
concerned with the inequalities of income and wealth, which are seen as the
outcome of market capitalism. Then there is the elitist, more conservative,
attack on capitalism for destroying culture and creating a degenerate
population of individuals not able to make the right (by elite standards)
choices in the market. To those who believe in the advantages of hierarchy,
consumer sovereignty and market egalitarianism pose a major threat. This
form of criticism of capitalist society has a long, and continuing,
history, and its anti-democratic tendencies have been frequently noted. For
some this failure of individual tastes represents an unchangeable outcome,
but to others the extension of education could provide a desired solution,
which would make consumer sovereignty acceptable.
The question of proslavery racism among the critics of capitalism may also
not be as sharp a distinction as Levy argues. It is not that the critics
were not, by today's standards, or even by the standards of that time,
racist. The problem is in trying to find any at that time who were not
explicitly or implicitly racist. The distinction would be between those who
regarded racial characteristics as genetic and not changeable, and those
who believed that with the passage of time, and the expansion of education
and labor, the marks of racial inferiority would be eliminated. At times
the argument about proslavery beliefs seems to shift ground, as Dickens,
usually placed in the antislavery camp, is considered somewhat proslavery,
both because he thought slavery could be reformed so that immediate
abolitionism was not necessary, and also because his _Hard Times_ pointed
to the greater evils of wage slavery in contrast with chattel slavery. By
such criteria, of course, the percentage of the British population to be
considered proslavery can be greatly expanded.
The focus on the proslavery belief of the critics of capitalism is the
most-frequently discussed issue in this book. There are, however, other,
quite interesting and informative discussions, of Mill, Macauley, and Smith
-- three of the heroes because of their concerns with the diffusion of the
benefits of economic growth, as well as Harriet Martineau and Bishop
Berkeley. At times the concern with language leads in unclear directions,
but, in general, this a very useful and thought- provoking contribution to
the study of the history of the "Dismal Science."
Stanley L. Engerman is co-editor (with Robert Gallman) of _The Cambridge
Economic History of the United States_.
Copyright (c) 2001 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be copied
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Published by EH.Net (December 2001). All EH.Net reviews are archived at
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