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I regret that I could not attend the History of Economics Society meeting 
this year. I would have been interested in attending the session on Yuval 
Yonay's book THE STRUGGLE OVER THE SOUL OF ECONOMICS: INSTITUTIONALIST 
AND NEOCLASSICIST ECONOMISTS IN AMERICA BETWEEN THE WARS. Having now read 
the book, here are some comments. 
 
It seems to me that the book was well worth publishing, and I, at least, 
can accept much of what it says.  Certainly, it was a pleasure to recall 
material that I had worked through when I did my dissertation. It was 
pleasing to see that someone else noticed it. 
 
However, it seemed to me that the chapter on value(s) was less than 
perceptive.  Perhaps even mistaken.  I thought the last chapter, the 
conclusion, was an assertion of an approach, not something that emerged 
from the study itself.  Further, its seems to me that what Yonay has 
blithey called "mathematical economics" goes some distance in answering 
the questions asked in the Old Institutional and Old Neoclassical 
Economics.  Does he give sufficient space to the New Institutional 
Economics?  Should he not have dealt with the continuity of questions as 
much as the changing fashion in approaches and policy leanings? 
 
The reading did bring me to an understanding of how Joan Robinson might be 
labeled a Marshallian.  Mea culpa.  However, I still think that in some 
sense she was profoundly Marxian. 
 
If you are not talked out on the matter, what think you? 
 
Robin Neill 
 
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