Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Samuel Hollander s work has been provoking debate for over four decades. This book brings together key contributions of recent years, in addition to some brand new pieces. The essays are introduced by a Preface in which Hollander reflects on his past work and reactions to it.
Highlights include two issues of particular current relevance. Conspicuous is an extensive chapter regarding Adam Smith s often neglected arguments for government intervention in the economy to correct market failures, and his critical view of the business class as an anti-social force. Important economists considered in relation to Adam Smith s position on the role of the state include Jeremy Bentham and the Scottish-Canadian John Rae. Similarly of high present-day interest is a re-examination of Karl Marx s theory of exploitation, or the notion of profits as "embezzlement," demonstrating Marx s effective abandonment of this perspective in the case of the small active businessman as distinct from the major joint-stock corporation.
Other papers demonstrate the close intellectual relationship between David Ricardo and Thomas Robert Malthus; the extensive common ground between the British school and the French under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Say; the failure of a so-called anti-Ricardian opposition in Britain represented by Samuel Bailey; and the denial of a sharp discontinuity between "classical" and later "neo-classical" economics.
Finally, several biographical essays are included as well as an extension of the autobiographical account appearing in Collected Essays II.
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