“Let those who will—write the nation’s laws—if I can write its textbooks.”
Paul A. Samuelson.
In 1911 the biggest gun of the Harvard economics department, Frank W. Taussig, published the first edition of his two-volume textbook Principles of Economics. In this posting I provide first his preface that I find particularly interesting for the following two statements:
“…a suitable place for taxation was not easy to find. I concluded finally to put the chapters on this subject at the very close, even though they may have the effect of an anticlimax, coming as they do after those on socialism.”
“[I] have said little on such a topic as the subjective theory of value, which in my judgment is of less service for explaining the phenomena of the real world than is supposed by its votaries. These matters and others of the same sort are best left to the professional literature of the subject.”
The second item is a letter he wrote that fall to the President of Harvard that provides his apologia for requiring students taking his course to own (or as he wrote “at least control”) a copy of his textbook. He says he contributed a number of his textbooks to the Phillips Brooks House Loan Library so “poor fellows” would not feel compelled to buy the book. That library had some three thousand textbooks in 1921 according to the Harvard Crimson. Cf. “The Phillips Brooks House. Formal Transfer to the University. Memorial Mass Meeting in Sanders.” The Harvard Crimson January 24, 1900.
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PREFACE
[Taussig, Frank W. Principles of Economics. (2 vols., New York, 1911). Volume I ; Volume II.]
I have tried in this book to state the principles of economics in such form that they shall be comprehensible to an educated and intelligent person who has not before made any systematic study of the subject. Though designed in this sense for beginners, the book does not gloss over difficulties or avoid severe reasoning. So one can understand economic phenomena or prepare himself to deal with economic problems who is unwilling to follow trains of reasoning which call for sustained attention. I have done my best to be clear, and to state with care the grounds on which my conclusions rest, as well as the conclusions themselves, but have made no vain pretense of simplifying all things.
The order of the topics has been determined more by convenience for exposition than by any strict regard for system In general, a subject has been entered on only when the main conclusions relating to it could be followed to the end. Yet so close is the connection between the different parts of economics that it has been necessary sometimes to go part way in the consideration of matters on which the final word had to be reserved for a later stage. Taxation has offered, as regards its place in the arrangement, perhaps the greatest difficulties. It is so closely connected with economics that some consideration of it seemed essential; whereas public finance in the stricter sense, whose problems are political quite as much as economic, has been omitted. Yet a suitable place for taxation was not easy to find. I concluded finally to put the chapters on this subject at the very close, even though they may have the effect of an anticlimax, coming as they do after those on socialism.
The book deals chiefly with the industrial conditions of modem countries, and most of all with those of the United States. Economic history and economic development are not considered in any set chapters, being touched only as they happen to illustrate one or another of the problems of contemporary society. Some topics to which economists give much attention in discussion among themselves receive scant attention or none at all. I have omitted entirely the usual chapters or sections on definitions, methodology, and history of dogma; and have said little on such a topic as the subjective theory of value, which in my judgment is of less service for explaining the phenomena of the real world than is supposed by its votaries. These matters and others of the same sort are best left to the professional literature of the subject. I hope this book is not undeserving the attention of specialists; but it is meant to be read by others than specialists.
Though not written on the usual model of textbooks, and not planned primarily to meet the needs of teachers and students, the book will prove of service, I hope, in institutions which offer substantial courses in economics. The fact that it is addressed to mature persons, not to the immature, should be an argument in favor of such use rather than against it. Being neither an encyclopedic treatise nor a textbook of the familiar sort, it offers no voluminous footnotes and no detailed directions for collateral reading. When facts and figures not of common knowledge have been cited, my sources of information have been stated. At the close of each of the eight Books into which the whole is divided, I have given suggestions for further reading and study, mentioning the really important books and papers.
I have expressed in the text, as occasion arose, my obligations to the contemporary thinkers from whom I have derived most stimulus. For great aid in revising the manuscript and proof, on matters both of form and substance, I am indebted to my colleagues Drs. B. F. Foerster and E. E. Day of Harvard University.
F. W. TAUSSIG.
Harvard University,
March, 1911.
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[Letter: Professor F. W. Taussig to Harvard President A. L. Lowell]
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
October 6, 1911.
Dear Lawrence:
It is due to you to explain what course I finally follow in regard to the use of my book in Economics 1.
After consultation with various colleagues, – – Haskins, Hurlbut, Channing, and others, – – I came to the conclusion not to put a large number of copies into the libraries for students’ use. The book is not a reference book, but a textbook. It is not meant for occasional consultation, but for sustained study through the year. Library reading of the book is almost of necessity somewhat hurried; this is a book the students want to read and re-read. At all events, if it is not worth sustained study, it is not worth using in the course at all. We always treated other books used in the course in the same way, never making any pretense of supplying them in the library. Moreover, there is a serious practical difficulty in turning hundreds of students into the reading room at about the same time in the course of each week. This last, however, is a minor matter. The essential consideration is that ownership, or at least control, of the book, is for the intellectual advantage of the men.
One perplexity I have avoided like putting a supply of copies, for the use of poor men, in Phillips Brooks House. I do not want to compel the poor fellows to buy my book. There is a text-book loan library in Phillips Brooks House, and this I have supplied with a sufficient number of copies for the use of the needy. Hurlbut and Arthur Beane between them will see that these copies get into the proper hands.
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig
President A. Lawrence Lowell.
Source: Harvard University Archives. President Lowell’s Papers (UAI.5.160), 1909-1914 Nos. 405-436. Box 15, Folder 413.