======================== HES POSTING =================== In response to Shira Lewin: Thank you for your posting of last week. I find little to disagree with in what you say or, perhaps, should say that I would welcome a colleague who sees the discipline in the way that you do. I still am a little uneasy with your idea that all/most history of thought should be focused on contemporary issues in economic theory, but I would like to imagine that we're only a healthy distance apart on this issue. I would very much like, for instance, to see more courses (graduate and undergraduate) on themes like "Monetarism, 1960-1985" or "The Economics of Poverty, 1880-1980"; I believe that looking at the developments (and dead ends, reversals, lost threads, quixotic efforts) in specific areas such as these (with consideration of the social and political history) would be a great boon to the discipline. We could help students to see how questions get framed, how theory develops (doesn't develop), how theory does and doesn't get used, how people and politics shape what happens. Understanding economics and the work of economists in fuller context might even help to slow the widely discussed fall-off in economics enrollments. I won't go on... Thanks, again, for your posting. I hope that when you're tenured and secure you will speak out thoughtfully in your department for a strong role for the history of thought in the curriculum of the department. Brad Bateman Grinnell College ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]