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I have found few historians "frightened" of economists; I have found many 
who believe strongly that economists "just don't get it", living in a world 
of mythological models that have only a tenuous link to reality.  Historians 
after all deal regularly with the very thing that neoclassical economics 
most seeks to avoid--the issue of power.  And that Whaples found economic 
historians in history departments to have less "faith" in the "market" 
(whatever that might be, absent a specific institutional and cultural 
context) than those in economics departments may have more to do with their 
context--they must deal regularly with people who have a deep empirical 
knowledge of specific spaces and times for which "markets" may offer little 
insight (though economic analysis can often offer a great deal); those who 
reside in economics departments are typically surrounded by folks who 
believe that markets always work (often without regard to the institutional 
framework, the initial specification of property rights, the forms of contract 
or the existence of a system to deal with tort, etc.); they are rarely 
called upon by colleagues--as might happen in history--to explain a complex 
set of "data points" (i.e., historical data) in which power plays a large role. 
 
One might also add that economists have, in some folks's view, a long-standing 
arrogance towards other social sciences (not just history); Albert Hirshman 
allegedly surveyed social scientists working at the Institute for Advanced 
Studies; all non-economist social scientists spoke with enthusiasm of how much 
they had learned from other fields; the economists, without exception, said 
they never learned anything useful from the other fields. 
 
Fred C. 
 
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Prof. Fred V. Carstensen                   Office: (860) 486-0614 
Department of Economics                    Dept:   (860) 486-3022 
341 Mansfield Road                         FAX:    (860) 486-4463 
University of Connecticut                  Home:   (860) 242-6355 
Storrs, CT 06269-1063                e-mail: [log in to unmask] 
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