----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- One direct borrowing I believe from Knight's The economic organization was Roger Weiss' book which as I recall was titled The Economic System. Like Knight's book, Weiss' book was written I believe for the lower level undergrad social science courses in the College at U. of Chicago. As I recall, Weiss says in his preface something to the effect that anyone reading his book will see that his debt to Knight's The Economic Organization is large. My own recollection of perusing the two books suggested that Weiss was not being unfair to himself with this comment. Weiss taught in the College in the 1960's, 1970's and perhaps into the 1980's. I do have copy of the 1951 edition with dust jacket. As Ross is probably aware, the 1951 edition on the copyright page actually lists the copyright dates as 1933 and 1951 with Frank Knight holding the copyright for both dates. The back of the dust jacket just lists a number of other A.M. Kelley titles. The back inside fold of the dust jacket just lists a Kelley reprint of the second edition of Malthus' Principles of Political Economy. The front inside fold of the dust jacket gives the Hayek quote that Ross mentions and nothing else. The Hayek quote in full is: "There can be few contemporary works on economics which, without ever having been regularly published, have achieved such wide circulation and fame as Frank H. Knight's The Economic Organization. For nearly a generation the various typed and mimeographed editions have been extensively used and drawn up. It is really to be welcomed that this influential essay is now at last made available in permanent form." Incidentally, when I was an undergraduate at Chicago, I was assigned a paperback edition of the Economic Organization; as I recall it was a Harper Torchbook edition (you might try looking at the National Union Catalogue to look for library holdings of subsequent reprints of this book after 1951). I think I still have it somewhere, but can't immediately find it. I am not sure if this would have any additional comments either on the back or in a preface regarding the book. I took the course in question in the fall quarter of 1970, so apparently the book was available in paperback edition then. The course was NOT an economics or social science course but that is probably another story. Since my understanding was that Knight wrote this book for use in the undergraduate college at Chicago, looking more at curriculum materials for the College from the 1930's on might reveal more about the genesis of the book and its immediate use in College the curriculum. But Ross may well have already explored this line of approach. David Mitch ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]