----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 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 ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]