----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Heath Pearson writes: >My notes from _Breaking the Academic Mould: Economists and American Higher >Learning in the 19th Century_ (ed. William Barber) tell me that the first >chair in Political Economy in the US was established in 1871, at Harvard. >I didn't note the chairholder, but I think it may have been Charles >F. Dunbar. Joseph Schumpeter, in _Ten Great Economists_ (1952), in the chapter on Frank Taussig, mentions that Taussig's teacher Charles Dunbar was persuaded out of retirement by President Eliot of Harvard "to become Professor of Political Economy, which up to that time had been taught by Professor Francis (Fanny) Bowen as a branch of moral philosophy". Schumpeter notes that "in that respect, Francis Bowen (1911-90), therefore, enjoys the distinction of having been in a boat with Adam Smith" (i.e., they were both professors of moral philosophy rather than "political economy"). Bowen's _Principles_ was published in 1856, and a new edition was published in 1870 with the title _American Political Economy_. - Roger Sandilands ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]