Synopses & Reviews
A landmark: the first book to provide an in-depth history of the Chicago School of Economics, which sprang from the economics departments at the University of Chicago and its business school in the mid-twentieth century and went on to revolutionize how we think about economics and business.
When Richard Nixon said "We are all Keynesians now"in 1971, few could have predicted that the next three decades would have resulted in a complete transformation of the global economic landscape. This transformation was led chiefly by a small but potently influential circle of thinkers teaching or trained in (or both) Chicago's departments of economics and political science and its business school-many of whom had worked in relative obscurity for decades.
These thinkers-including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Robert Lucas, and others-revolutionized economic orthodoxy in the second half of the twentieth century, utterly dominated the Nobel Prizes awarded in economics, and changed how business is done around the world.
Written by a leading European economic thinker with his own long ties to the University of Chicago, The Chicago Schoolis the first in-depth look at how this remarkable group of thinkers came together, and how their influence and importance grew around the world.
Johan Van Overtveldt, PhD, is the director of the Belgium-based think tank VKW Metena, which works on a breadth of economics-related issues. Formerly editor in chief of the Belgian newsmagazine Trends, he has written several books in Dutch on economics-related issues, and he contributes frequently to the Wall Street Journal Europe and other publications.
Review
"This is an admirably detailed and thoroughly welcome history of a great centre of economic thought." The Economist
Overtveldt is at his best in his depiction of the ruthless yet stimulating internal culture of the department during these years. Workshops that might be polite but sleepy seminars at other campuses became bloodbaths at Chicago. Graduate classes were exercises in terror.” Kim Phillips-Fein, Chicago Tribune
Unique and fascinating.” Publishers Weekly
I enjoyed the book very much. Instead of stopping at Friedman, Coase and Director, it also offers a comprehensive treatment of [many] neglected figures
it is a landmark in the history of economic thought.” Tyler Cowen, The Marginal Revolution”
Synopsis
When Richard Nixon said We are all Keynesians now” in 1971, few could have predicted that the next three decades would result in a complete transformation of the global economic landscape. The transformation was led by a small, relatively obscure group within the University of Chicagos business school and its departments of economics and political science. These thinkers including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Robert Lucas, and others revolutionized economic orthodoxy in the second half of the 20th century, dominated the Nobel Prizes awarded in economics, and changed how business is done around the world. Written by a leading European economic thinker, The Chicago School is the first in-depth look at how this remarkable group came together. Exhaustively detailed, it provides a close recounting of the decade-by-decade progress of the Chicago School's evolution. As such, it's an essential contribution to the intellectual history of our time.
About the Author
Johan Van Overtveldt, PhD, is the director of the Belgium-based think tank VKW Metena, which treats a breadth of economics-related issues. He was formerly the chief economist for the Belgian newsmagazine Trends, and he contributes frequently to the Wall Street Journal Europe and other publications.