Mason,

Long time ago, Thomas Sowell taught graduate history of thought in the department of economics at UCLA, which at the time was considered one of the best departments of economics.  So the Thomas Sowell you read in newspapers is not the same as the one you read in his books.  Certainly there is more there than you are willing to grant.

As for "good reads" I'd like to suggest my colleague Larry White's new book, The Clash of Economic Ideas (Cambridge, 2012).  It is a very engaging work full of colorful details. I will be using along with Blaug in my course in the fall.

I also thing intellectual biographies are great reads -- Keynes of course is a great subject not only because of timeliness but because he was such an interesting figure and lived such an amazing life and who he interacted with.  Biographies on Hayek, especially Caldwell's Hayek's Challenge are very much recommended as well.


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-----Original Message-----
From: mason gaffney <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 21:58:46 
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-to: Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [SHOE] The HET "good reads" list

I am sure that was not your intent.  It just shows through in the
selections, e.g. of Thomas Sowell, a tendentious political editorialist.
The fact that some HET contributors could unconsciously see him and similar
propagandists as objective HET scholars is what concerns me.  It is like
moving the editorial page to the news columns of a newspaper without even
thinking they might be different.

                This is not to focus my animus on "wingnuts" of
neo-anarchism.  I would say the same about Paul Krugman and Robert Reich,
for example.  It's the one-sidedness and preoccupation with superficial and
cosmetic current political symbolic issues and sloganeering that I'd like to
see exorcised from HET.

 

Mason Gaffney

From: Societies for the History of Economics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2012 4:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [SHOE] The HET "good reads" list

 

No one is equating HET with anything.  If someone asks a question, he
deserves an answer.  Nothing political was suggested or implied.

 

Charles McCann