Milton Friedman’s papers at the Hoover Institution Archives include the economics course notes from his student years. In an earlier post I transcribed Friedman’s own listing of his coursework in economics, statistics and mathematics by quarter/semester and academic institution. This is how we know that it was during the 1933 Winter Quarter that Milton Friedman attended Frank Knight’s course on the history of economic thought. Friedman’s notes begin with a four page course bibliography. An image of the first page is included below. A transcription of the complete bibliography, augmented with links to almost all items, immediately follows.
I had earlier transcribed the mimeographed course bibliography from the 1946 Winter Quarter found in Norman Kaplan’s student notes that I found in the University of Chicago archives. The 1946 course bibliography includes about twenty additional items when compared this 1933 version.
With a clear, typed bibliography to check against Friedman’s sometimes only partially legible handwritten notes, I discovered that duplication technology must have dramatically improved between 1933 and 1946 at the University of Chicago. Friedman clearly copied from a nearly identical bibliography (including Knight annotations!) that I surmise might have been only available as a single typed list posted with reserve material at the library.
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Economics 302
History of Economic Thought
Frank H. Knight
Bibliography
General Works
Gray, Alexander—Development of Economic Doctrine
Haney, L.H.—History of Economic Thought
(Read both of them on classical school with care)
Ingram, J. K.—A History of Political Economy. Briefer than Haney, and usable
Spann, O. History of Economics (English Translation [of 19th German ed., 1930]) [17th ed., German original Die Hauptheorien der Volkswirtschaftslehre (1928)]
Valuable for its intense opposition to the viewpoint of the classical school, in favor of an organismic or universalistic standpoint.
Won’t make much use of:
Oncken A.—Geschichte der National Ökonomie. Very good up to Adam Smith (Knight likes)
Gide, C. and Rist, C.—History of Economic Doctrine. (Translation from French) Competent but uninspired book. (Begins with Physiocrats) (Knight does not like.)
Schumpeter, Joseph—Epochen der Dogmen- und Methodengeschichte, contained in Grundriss der Sozialökonomik, Vol. I. [English translation]
On the whole period before the classical school
Monroe, A.E.—Early Economic Thought. Lengthy excerpts from important writers
Dunning, W.A.—History of Political Theories, Ancient and Mediaeval
Dunning, W.A.—History of Political Theories, From Luther to Montesquieu
Greco-Roman Economics
Miss [E.] Simey—article entitled Economic Theory among the Greeks and Romans [Economic Review vol. 10 (October 1900), pp. 462-481] (On Reserve)—Best about ancient
Laistner, M.L.W.—Greek Economics, Introduction and excerpts.
Medieval
Ashley, W. J.—English Economic History and Theory. Volume I, Part I, Chapter 3, and Volume I, Part II, Chapter 6. Best general account.
O’Brien, George—An Essay on Medieval Economic Theory. Highly important, especially because from a Catholic point of view.
Becker Carl, The Heavenly City of the 18th Century Philosophers. Chapter 1 on the climate of opinion.
Tawney, R.H.—Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Chapter I on the Medieval Background.
Physiocrats.
(Given very little attention in this course)
Ware, Norman—article on the Physiocrats in American Economic Review, 1931
Turgot, A.R.J., Formation and Distribution of Riches (Ashley Economic Classics)
Mercantilism
Viner, J. English Theories of Foreign Trade before Adam Smith. In Journal of Political Economy, volume 38, numbers 3 and 4. [Reprinted in Studies in the Theory of International Trade: First Part; Second Part]
Schmoller, Gustav. The Mercantile System. Invaluable, also as a specimen of the German Historical Economics.
Ashley, W. J. The Tory Origin of Free Trade. Q. J. E. Volume 11.
Classical School
Whitaker A. C.—Labor Theory of Value in English Political Economy. Nearly essential.
Cannan E. –Theories of Production and Distribution. Valuable, but laborious reading.
Cannan—Review of Economic Theory. Later and more available.
(Ought to own)
Adam Smith—Wealth of Nations. Full text, Everyman’s Library (2 volumes) most available [Volume One; Volume Two]. Abridged edition edited by Ashley gives part covered in course conveniently in one volume. Cannan Edition (2 vols.), the definitive edition, but expensive and bulky.
Ricardo, David—Principles of Political Economy. Gonnar Edition best. Available in Everyman’s.
Mill, J. S.—Principles of Political Economy. Ashley edition
Subjective Value or Marginal Utility School
Smart Wm.—Introduction to the Theory of Value.
Wieser, F.—Natural Value
Smart’s prefaces to Böhm-Bawerk’s two main volumes [Böhm-Bawerk Capital and Interest and Positive Theory of Capital] and to Wieser’s Natural Value.
Weinberger, Otto—Die Grenznutzenschule
Mises, Ludwig—Bemerkungen zum Grundproblem der Subjektivistischen Wertlehre, contained in Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik. Band 59, Heft 1.
Source: Hoover Institution Archives. Milton Friedman Papers, Box 120. Notebook: “Economics
Image Source: Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf1-03516.