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Philip Mirowski. 1984. Physics and the "Marginalist Revolution." 
_Cambridge Journal of Economics_ (8): 361-379. 
 
The article is a wonderfully concise statement of the Mirowski  
Thesis, the idea that the actual change that took place in  
economics around the turn of the century was the adoption of the  
formalism of energy physics by a profession eager to show that it  
was a real science. It completes in its own way the task begun by  
Jaffe of reinterpreting what the so-called (and perhaps mislabeled)  
"marginalist revolution" was all about. Given the radical nature of  
the reinterpretation, it also stands as an exemplar of the now- 
common notion that history really is, after all, an interpretive  
exercise. Finally, it is pedagogically a great piece, because for it to  
be properly understood (e.g., the word "mimetic" is central to the  
argument) the student must use a dictionary!   
 
Bruce J. Caldwell 
Department of Economics 
Univresity of North Carolina, Greensboro 
 
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