ECON 5110 — Reading List: the Nineteenth Century

4. Malthus and the Theory of Population.

4.1 Economic History.

Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms (Princeton, 2007), chapter 2.

Richard N. Langlois, "The Great Question," manuscript.

4.2 Primary Sources.

Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (London: J. Johnson, 1798).  (Sixth Edition, 1826.)

4.3 Secondary Sources.

Mark Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, Fifth Edition), Chapter 3: "Population, Diminishing Returns, and Rent."

5. Ricardo, Mill, and Classical Economics.

5.1 Economic History.

Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: Interests, Ideas and Institutions in Historical Perspective (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006).

5.2 Primary Sources.

 David Ricardo, The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (London: John Murray 1821, Third Edition), esp. chapters 1-8, 19-21, 26, 30-31.

John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (London; Longmans, Green and Co., 1909, Seventh Edition), esp. Book I, chapter 5; Book III, chapters 1-6, 15-16; and Book IV, chapters 1-4.

5.3 Secondary Sources.

Mark Blaug, Economic Theory in Retrospect (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, Fifth Edition), Chapter 4: "Ricardo's System."

Robert Dorfman, "Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo," Journal of Economic Perspectives 3(3): 153-164 (1989).

George Stigler, "Ricardo and the 93% Labor Theory of Value," American Economic Review 48(3): 357-367 (June 1958).

6. The reaction to capitalism: conservatives, utopians, socialists.

6.1 Economic History.

Gregory Clark, A Farewell to Alms (Princeton, 2007), chapter 14.

6.2 Primary Sources.

Thomas Carlyle page at the History of Economic Thought Website.

John Ruskin, Unto this Last (1860).

Robert Owen, A New View of Society (1813-16).

Utopian and socialist page at the History of Economic Thought Website.

6.3 Secondary Sources.

Robert Heilbroner, The Worldly Philosophers (New York: Touchstone, 1999, Seventh Edition), Chapter 5, "The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists."

David Levy and Sandra Peart, “The Secret History of the Dismal Science: Economics, Religion, and Race in the 19th Century” (2001).

7. Marx.

7.1 Economic History.

Richard N. Langlois, "The Coevolution of Technology and Organization in the Transition to the Factory System," in Paul L. Robertson, ed., Authority and Control in Modern Industry. London: Routledge, 1999, pp. 45-72.

7.2 Primary Sources.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Communist Manifesto (1848), Sections 1 and 2.

Karl Marx, Capital, volume 1 (1867).

7.3 Secondary Sources.

Paul Craig Roberts and Matthew Stephenson, Marx’s Theory of Exchange, Alienation, and Crisis. Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1973.

8. The Marginalist Revolution and Alfred Marshall.

8.1 Economic History.

Rondo Cameron and Larry Neal, A Concise Economic History of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 2002, chapter 12.

Kevin H. O'Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson, Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-century Atlantic Economy (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999).

8.2 Primary Sources.

W. S. Jevons, Theory of Political Economy (London: Macmillan and Co., Third Edition, 1888).

Carl Menger, Principles of Economics (1871).

Carl Menger, “On the Origin of Money,” The Economic Journal 2(6): 239-255 (June 1892).

Alfred Marshall, Principles of Economics, eighth edition, esp. Book I, chapters I and II; Book III; and Book IV; skim Book V.

8.3 Secondary Sources.

William Jaffé, "Menger, Jevons and Walras De-Homogenized," Economic Inquiry 14(4):511-24 (1976).

Philip Mirowski, "Physics and the ‘Marginalist Revolution’," Cambridge Journal of Economics 8(4): 361-379 (December 1984).

Brian J. Loasby, "Knowledge and Organization: Marshall's Theory of Economic Progress and Coordination," chapter 4 in Loasby, The Mind and Method of the Economist. Edward Elgar, 1989.

Moss, Scott, "The History of the Theory of the Firm from Marshall to Robinson and Chamberlin: The Source of Positivism in Economics," Economica 51(203): 307-318 (1984).