Synopses & Reviews
Captures the 17th-19th century origins and developments ofpolitical economy by editing original texts and illuminatingtheir relevance for today's political debatePolitical economy from the 17th century to the present can be captured in two narratives originating with Locke and Rousseau. Those original narratives were expanded in significant ways in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the editors argue that they still hold sway today.
Edited original writings included in the anthology are from: Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Proudhon, Owen, the Federalist Papers, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, and the American Constitution. The editors have restricted their comments to the extensive introductions thereby allowing the original participants to speak for themselves. The readings included are intended to be instructive with respect to the origin and development of the two narratives rather than an exhaustive account of how thinkers and writers on economics advance the discipline of economics as a social science.
Reviews
"The editors provide a compelling collection to critically frame the clash of Political Economy which shapes modern democracies. Their selections and introductions expertly paint a picture of the contending schools to suggest how enduring these core challenges remain. By placing these writers within this great debate, the authors guide students to discover the essential questions of liberty, equality, and the proper role of the state at the core of the American economic debate."
—Roberta Q. Herzberg, Utah State University Political Science
"The real service performed by Capaldi and Lloyd is to provide generous excerpts from supporters of both narratives so that the reader can determine for themselves who best makes their case. I recommend this volume highly both to the individual interested in learning about the intellectual and political history of political economy and to the professor in search of a one-volume anthology on political economy for use in a course on economic thought."
—Steven D. Ealy, Senior Fellow, Liberty Fund, Inc.
Review
“Nonetheless, the book is impressive for its topical breadth … In this light, I’ll be very interested in seeing what an updated edition of this volume might look like in another decade or two. (
Conversations on Philanthropy, 2012)
Synopsis
This is an anthology of political economy from the 17th to the 19th century. The main theme is that all of political economy from the 17th century to the very present can be captured in two narratives originating in Locke and Rousseau respectively. Those original narratives are expanded in significant ways in the 18th and 19th centuries and the editors argue that they still hold sway today.
Edited original writings included in the anthology are from: Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Proudhon, Owen, as well as the Federalist Papers, French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, and the American Constitution. The editors have restricted their comments to the extensive introductions thereby allowing the original participants to speak for themselves. The readings included are intended to be instructive with respect to the origin and development of the two narratives rather than an exhaustive account of how thinkers and writers on economics advance the project of economics as a social science.
The objective of this book is to retrieve these two narratives in order to apply the rediscoveries to the contemporary situation. At the heart is the claim that there are two narratives at work both in the normative and empirical sense: the liberty narrative and the equality narrative. Both these narratives are informed by two versions of the enlightenment. Both of these narratives undergo internal intellectual challenges as the enlightenment understanding of physical and human nature are subjected to criticism.
“The authors have assembled an impressively representative array of materials and have convincingly located the origins of contemporary political and economic thought in Enlightenment philosophy. The book is both timely and of abiding relevance to anyone who wishes to gain a better understanding of what lies in the past, present, or future of political economy and political philosophy.” Kevin Honeycutt, Sweet Briar College
Synopsis
This publication uniquely reintegrates and makes comprehensible all public policy debate from the fields of philosophy, economics, and political science since the Enlightenment. It includes original material from scholars and thinkers in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries together with extensive introductions by the authors to explain the context. This book presents an in-depth exploration of the origins of the current political debate in the U.S. between the Republican and Democrat positions on issues to do with social and economic policy.
Synopsis
Captures the 17th-19th century origins and developments ofpolitical economy by editing original texts and illuminatingtheir relevance for today's political debatePolitical economy from the 17th century to the present can be captured in two narratives originating with Locke and Rousseau. Those original narratives were expanded in significant ways in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the editors argue that they still hold sway today.
Edited original writings included in the anthology are from: Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Tocqueville, Mill, Marx, Proudhon, Owen, the Federalist Papers, the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, and the American Constitution. The editors have restricted their comments to the extensive introductions thereby allowing the original participants to speak for themselves. The readings included are intended to be instructive with respect to the origin and development of the two narratives rather than an exhaustive account of how thinkers and writers on economics advance the discipline of economics as a social science.
Reviews
"The editors provide a compelling collection to critically frame the clash of Political Economy which shapes modern democracies. Their selections and introductions expertly paint a picture of the contending schools to suggest how enduring these core challenges remain. By placing these writers within this great debate, the authors guide students to discover the essential questions of liberty, equality, and the proper role of the state at the core of the American economic debate."
—Roberta Q. Herzberg, Utah State University Political Science
"The real service performed by Capaldi and Lloyd is to provide generous excerpts from supporters of both narratives so that the reader can determine for themselves who best makes their case. I recommend this volume highly both to the individual interested in learning about the intellectual and political history of political economy and to the professor in search of a one-volume anthology on political economy for use in a course on economic thought."
—Steven D. Ealy, Senior Fellow, Liberty Fund, Inc.
About the Author
Gordon Lloyd is a Professor of Public Policy, School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. The co-author of three books on the American founding and sole author of
The Two Faces of Liberalism, which examines the political economy of the New Deal. He is the creator of three highly regarded websites on the creation and adoption of the Constitution.
Nicholas Capaldi is Legendre-Soulé Distinguished Chair in Business Ethics at Loyola University, New Orleans. His highly-praised biography of John Stuart Mill was featured on C-SPAN's BookNotes.
Table of Contents
Editors' Note.General Introduction.
Part One: The Emergence of Political Economy: Economic Activity Leaves the Household
Introduction.
John Locke The Second Treatise.
John Locke A Letter Concerning Toleration.
John Locke Some Considerations of the Lowering of Interest and the Raising the Value of Money.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Two Discourses.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau A Discourse on Political Economy.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau The Social Contract.
Part Two: The Arrival of Political Economy: Liberty, Property, and Equality.
Introduction.
Adam Smith Wealth of Nations.
Adam Smith The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
The American Founding.
Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America.
The French Revolution.
Robert Owen A New View of Society.
Comte de Saint-Simon Nouveau Christianisme.
Friedrich List National System.
P. J. Proudhon The Philosophy of Poverty.
P. J. Proudhon What is Property?
Part Three: The Maturation of the Two Narratives: The Challenge of Social Economy.
Introduction.
John Stuart Mill The Principles of Political Economy.
John Stuart Mill On Liberty.
John Stuart Mill The Subjection of Women.
Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels The Communist Manifesto.
Karl Marx Das Kapital.
Fredrick Engels Socialism: Utopian and Scientific.
Index.