Perhaps Blaug's 'Economic Theory in Retrospect' might be a good place to
start.

Bob



On Wed, December 19, 2012 23:11, Roger Backhouse wrote:
> People have mostly listed what they think are classic texts, though three
> of Bruce's are secondary sources. But is that the right answer for
> David's question? If graduate students simply read 10 articles from the
> past, what will they learn about the the history of economic thought?
> Will they not get just a tiny selection of past ideas that might persuade
> them that these topics are more rigorously covered by modern economists
> and that they need read no further? They won't be exposed to the problems
> of interpreting past texts that make the field intellectually
> challenging. I am all for students reading original sources, but surely
> short extracts (what you are asking for) make sense only when read
> alongside interpretations of the past.
>
> To put this another way, if people read a chapter from Smith, a chapter
> from Ricardo, etc, they will still never have read any history, just some
> of the source material. Perhaps you should be looking for 10 articles
> that challenge interpretations of history that students may have
> encountered (such as Emma Rothschild's "Smith and conservative economics"
> or David Laidler's article on Hawtrey and the Chicago school or
> Patinkin's article on Friedman and the Chicago tradition) or else works
> that will engage with theories that students are covering in their
> courses (such as Robert Leonard on von Neumann and Morgenstern on game
> theory, or James Forder on the Phillips Curve). Finding pieces that will
> engage the students would seem paramount.
>
> Roger
>
>
> On 17 Dec 2012, at 16:21, "Colander, David C." <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>
>> A couple of years ago, I organized a creativity workshop for a group of
>> graduate students, and had some excellent discussions with them. I
>> covered history of thought; Ed Leamer covered creativity in
>> econometrics, and Herb Gintis covered creativity in theory.  Avinash
>> Dixit and John Siegfried covered general creativity issues.  It was a
>> useful workshop, and the students recognized that they were not getting
>> any useful instruction in the history of thought.  They asked me to
>> suggest a  general reading list that all economics students should have
>> read, which I didn't have right off the bat, but I thought would be
>> useful.    So now, with your help,  I will try to develop one.
>>
>> So my question is:   If one had to list, say, 20   articles  or
>> chapters in books that all economists should definitely have read, what
>> would be on that list?     My plan is to post this list on my website
>> and to possiblly  take out an ad in the 2014 Program guide providing my
>> suggestions for  the top 10 to graduate students, and picking on the
>> professioin for not doing its job in training graduate students to have
>> perspective on issues that a study of past literature provides. So my
>> question: What suggestions would people have for me of "must reads"?
>>
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>>
>>
>> Dave
>>
>