----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- I don't mind saying that one of the regretful aspects of the Duke policy is that the historians of economic thought there are not reproducing their traditions and approaches, at least not in the same way they would if they supervised dissertations. There is no replacement for the mentor-student relationship involved in producing a doctoral dissertation. Over many years, this can have a great impact. Just think if the three or four tenured professors at Duke in the HET each supervised even one dissertation every two or three years, if the policy they have now has been in place for twenty years... To consider the full impact we have to also imagine that the students they would have been producing would have themselves gone on to teach and supervise, etc. It seems clear to me that the HES should be campaigning for HET to be required in every program, undergraduate and graduate, for courses to be required, for every department to have at least one line in HET for every--what?--5-7 lines in other fields? HES should be campaigning for journals to consider work in the HET (as they did at one time!), to be judged by appropriate and rigorous standards, as any other submissions. It would be a huge loss for Economics if the HET were to be out-sourced. Of course many economists don't feel that way, but historians of economics should! Mat ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]