A few days ago I asked, what economic history do economists need to know? Since then, I’ve thought of a few extra myself – although the list below barely still scratches the surface! Keep the ideas coming.
[amazon_link id=”0691143277″ target=”_blank” ]Power and Plenty[/amazon_link], Ronald Findlay and Kevin O’Rourke
[amazon_image id=”0691143277″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World)[/amazon_image]
[amazon_link id=”0226014746″ target=”_blank” ]The Institutional Revolution[/amazon_link], Douglas Allen
[amazon_link id=”0471295639″ target=”_blank” ]Against the Gods: The remarkable story of risk[/amazon_link], Peter Bernstein
[amazon_link id=”1847376460″ target=”_blank” ]The Prize: the epic quest for power, oil and money[/amazon_link], Daniel Yergin
[amazon_link id=”0140258264″ target=”_blank” ]Accidental Empires[/amazon_link], Robert Cringely
[amazon_image id=”0140258264″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can’t Get a Date[/amazon_image]
Below, I’ve collated some of the additional suggestions other people have made.
Tom Clark, author of [amazon_link id=”0300203772″ target=”_blank” ]Hard Times: The Divisive Toll of the Economic Slump[/amazon_link], emailed: “Robert Shiller’s [amazon_link id=”0691123357″ target=”_blank” ]Irrational Exuberance[/amazon_link]. Arguably a bit old now, but still teaches you how to make sense of what’s going on in financial markets today in the light of decades of experience. Barry Eichengreen’s [amazon_link id=”0691139377″ target=”_blank” ]Globalising Capital[/amazon_link], which does the whole history of the global monetary system v elegantly in a couple of hundred pages. The classic [amazon_link id=”0765809443″ target=”_blank” ]Marienthal study[/amazon_link] of the effect of unemployment (which I read in full for Hard Times, and is a powerful as well as a nice quick read).” He also suggested Galbraith’s [amazon_link id=”014103825X” target=”_blank” ]The Great Crash 1929[/amazon_link].
[amazon_image id=”0691139377″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ][amazon_image id=”0691139377″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Second Edition)[/amazon_image]
[amazon_image id=”0765809443″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Marienthal (Ppr): The Sociography of an Unemployed Community[/amazon_image]
Robotenomics: “I’d recommend considering [amazon_link id=”B00D0DM4V2″ target=”_blank” ]Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction[/amazon_link] by Thomas McCraw, and [amazon_link id=”1843763311″ target=”_blank” ]Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital[/amazon_link] by Carlota Perez.”
Christopher May: Karl Polanyi’s classic [amazon_link id=”080705643X” target=”_blank” ]The Great Transformation[/amazon_link]
Brian Labatte: A. Chandler, [amazon_link id=”1614275084″ target=”_blank” ]Strategy and Structure[/amazon_link]; A. Sloan, [amazon_link id=”0385042353″ target=”_blank” ]My Years with General Motors[/amazon_link].
[amazon_image id=”0385042353″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]My Years with General Motors[/amazon_image]
Steven Clarke: “I’m currently reading David Landes [amazon_link id=”052153402X” target=”_blank” ]The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Industrial Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present[/amazon_link] and would thoroughly recommend it.”
Ronald Grey: [amazon_link id=”0230365353″ target=”_blank” ]Manias, Panics, and. Crashes. A History of Financial Crises[/amazon_link] by Charles Kindleberger
Duncan Green: Anything and everything by Ha-Joon Chang (from [amazon_link id=”1843310279″ target=”_blank” ]Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy in Historical Perspective[/amazon_link] onwards) and Dani Rodrik ([amazon_link id=”0691141177″ target=”_blank” ]One Economics, Many Recipes[/amazon_link]).
Merjin Knibbe: [amazon_link id=”0307962431″ target=”_blank” ]Money, the unauthorized biography[/amazon_link]
Martin Chick tweeted:
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Attlee8 @diane1859 My first year’s in British EH begin with Keynes, Essays In Persuasion; Meade Intelligent Radical’s Guide to Economy; 14/07/2014 07:52 |
Studenski (Paul) Kroos (Herman E.) – Financial History of United States : Fiscal, monetary banking and tariff, including financial administration and state of local finance.
It’s a dry read and dated, but if economists, particularly economics students, read this they will have a much better understanding of how the structures and institutions in our economy came to be. It covers pre-Revoultionary War up until about 1960. I recommend this book for everyone. It was used in Dr. Jon Moen’s American Financial History (Econ 425) at the University of Mississippi. He’s a brilliant instructor who focuses he research on the National Banking Era, which is a facisnating topic of economic history that isn’t discussed enough.
Re economic history
I would recommend Joel Mokyr, The Enlightened Economy an excellent and very readable survey of Econ Hist of Britain, 1700- 1850.
Also Robert C Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective
Douglas A Irwin, Against the Tide an intellectual history of free trade.
Best regards,
Robert Kirk
Creating Abundance by Alan Olmstead and Paul Rhode, on the development of US agriculture.
A Great Leap Forward by Alex Field, on US economic growth from the interwar period to the present.
For recent history, I’d recommend The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein; it’s a brilliant read, you really can’t put it down, and it devastatingly exposes the malign effects of economic theory gone mad.