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Traditionally, there has been a long and sustained interest in studying the history of economic ideas in France. Interest appeared to wane after World War II, but in recent decades, there has been a marked renaissance of interest and research in the contributions of French-speaking authors. Drawing on the flow of recent research, this book presents a new assessment of the history of political economy in France incorporating both novel presentations of some traditional subjects and topics that are not usually studied.
This second volume analyses the evolution of political economy during the long nineteenth century, combining an assessment of both liberals and their opponents. Its first part covers the most outstanding contributions to political economy in the age of industry, from the founding fathers (L.-C.-C. Destutt de Tracy and J. -B. Say) until the pre-World War I period, including that of A.-A. Cournot, J. Dupuit, the French liberal economists, and L. Walras. The volume then outlines the critiques of liberal political economy, focusing on the analyses of J.-C.L.S. de Sismondi, C.-H. de Saint-Simon and his followers, and the successive generations of socialist and associationist authors, not forgetting the sociological critique. A substantial postlude concludes the volume with a survey of recent developments of French economic thought up to the present day.
A History of Economic Thought in France will be invaluable reading for advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, political economy, intellectual history and French history.
List of contents
Part I. Political Economy in the Age of Industry 1. Prelude I. Political economy in the age of industry Claire Silvant 2. The founding fathers of the French liberal thought: L.-C.-C. Destutt de Tracy and Jean-Baptiste Say Alain Béraud & Guy Numa 3. Liberal economists after Say Alain Béraud & Claire Silvant 4. Antoine-Augustin Cournot and the emergence of mathematical economics Alain Béraud & Guy Numa 5. Jules Dupuit and the 'ingénieurs économistes' Claire Silvant 6. Léon Walras. A trilogy of pure, applied and social economics Jean-Pierre Potier 7. Tradition and innovation at the turn of the twentieth century Alain Béraud & Claire Silvant Part II. Critiques of Liberal Political Economy 8. Prelude II. Introduction to the critiques of political economy Gilbert Faccarello 9. Jean-Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi Pascal Bridel 10. Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon and the Saint-Simonians Ragip Ege 11. Associationists and socialists: the first debates Clément Coste & Ludovic Frobert 12. Fin-de-siècle socialisms Vincent Bourdeau 13. The sociological critique of liberal political economy Philippe Steiner 14. Postlude. After World War I Alain Béraud & Claire Silvant
About the author
Gilbert Faccarello is Emeritus Professor at Panthéon-Assas University, France. He is a co-founder of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought and co-editor of the Routledge Historical Resources site devoted to the History of Economic Thought.
Claire Silvantis is Associate Professor of Economics at the Université Lumière, France, and a member of the research centre Triangle (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). She also was in charge of a research programme on the history of public economics sponsored by the European Society for the History of Economic Thought.
Summary
Traditionally there has been a long and sustained interest in studying the history of economic ideas in France. This second volume analyses the evolution of political economy during the long nineteenth century, combining an assessment of both liberals and their opponents.
Report
"[T]he editors are to be congratulated on having at last brought into view the sheer variety of nineteenth century French economic thought, and given us the means to begin to understand it."
- Keith Tribe, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
