================= HES POSTING ================= I have found few historians "frightened" of economists; I have found many who believe strongly that economists "just don't get it", living in a world of mythological models that have only a tenuous link to reality. Historians after all deal regularly with the very thing that neoclassical economics most seeks to avoid--the issue of power. And that Whaples found economic historians in history departments to have less "faith" in the "market" (whatever that might be, absent a specific institutional and cultural context) than those in economics departments may have more to do with their context--they must deal regularly with people who have a deep empirical knowledge of specific spaces and times for which "markets" may offer little insight (though economic analysis can often offer a great deal); those who reside in economics departments are typically surrounded by folks who believe that markets always work (often without regard to the institutional framework, the initial specification of property rights, the forms of contract or the existence of a system to deal with tort, etc.); they are rarely called upon by colleagues--as might happen in history--to explain a complex set of "data points" (i.e., historical data) in which power plays a large role. One might also add that economists have, in some folks's view, a long-standing arrogance towards other social sciences (not just history); Albert Hirshman allegedly surveyed social scientists working at the Institute for Advanced Studies; all non-economist social scientists spoke with enthusiasm of how much they had learned from other fields; the economists, without exception, said they never learned anything useful from the other fields. Fred C. ********************************************************************** Prof. Fred V. Carstensen Office: (860) 486-0614 Department of Economics Dept: (860) 486-3022 341 Mansfield Road FAX: (860) 486-4463 University of Connecticut Home: (860) 242-6355 Storrs, CT 06269-1063 e-mail: [log in to unmask] ********************************************************************** ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]