This book chronicles the rise and especially the demise of diverse revolutionary heterodox traditions in Cambridge theoretical and applied economics, investigating both the impact of internal pressures within the faculty as also the power of external ideological and political forces unleashed by the global dominance of neoliberalism. Using fresh archival materials, personal interviews and recollections, this meticulously researched narrative constructs the untold story of the eclipse of these heterodox and post-Keynesian intellectual traditions rooted and nurtured in Cambridge since the 1920s, and the rise to power of orthodox, mainstream economics. Also expunged in this neoclassical counter-revolution were the structural and radical policy-oriented macro-economic modelling teams of the iconic Department of Applied Economics, along with the atrophy of sociology, development and economic history from teaching and research in the self-purifying faculty. This book will be of particular interest to researchers in the history of economic thought, sociology of knowledge, political economy, especially those engaged in heterodox and post-Keynesian economics, and to everyone wishing to make economics fit for purpose again for negotiating the multiple economic, social and environmental crises rampant at national and global levels.
Volume I.- 1 Cambridge, That Was: The Crucible of Heterodox Economics.-
1.1 The Narrative.- 1.2 Evolutions and Revolutions.- 1.2.1 The Great Banyan
of Heterodox Traditions.- 1.2.2 Cohorts.- 1.2.3 The Cambridge Habitat.- 1.2.4
Which Cambridge?.- 1.3 Regime Change.- 1.3.1 The World of Cambridge: Stories
Within.- 1.3.2 Worlds Beyond Cambridge: Neoliberalism at the Gates.- 1.4 The
Dialectic of Competing Paradigms.- 1.4.1 Laissez-Faire: Receding at last
into the distance.- 1.4.2 The Force of Ideas.- 1.4.3 Opposition Brewing.-
1.4.4 Evolutions and Hegemonic Incorporation.- 1.4.5 Ideological: Not the
Techniques but the Purposes of Economics.- 1.4.6 Sociological: Mathematical
Whiz-Kids and Ageing Dinosaurs.- 1.4.7 Beyond Kuhnian Reductionism.- 1.4.8
Mankiws Pendulum.- 1.4.9 Solows Ą La Carte Approach.- 1.4.10 Silos and
Trenches.- 1.4.11 Joan Versus HahnHistory Versus Equilibrium.- 1.5 Semantics
and Pedantics.- References.- 2 The Warring Tribes.- 2.1 A Sanctuary of
Sages.- 2.1.1 Class to Community: The Cement of War.- 2.1.2 Community to
Conflict: Cement to Sand.- 2.1.3 A Pride of Savage Prima Donnas.- 2.2 Faculty
Wars.- 2.2.1 Paradise Lost.- 2.2.2 Fault Lines Within.- Wynne Godley: No
Legacy No Synthesis, No TextbooksThe Samuelson Factor.- Shifting Student
Preferences?.- Irrelevance and Irreverence: Joan and K-Theory.- Inbred
Insularity, Complacency.- Simultaneities in the Demographic Lifecycle.- Lack
of Internal Group Coherence.- The Heterodox Camp: No ChairsSorry, Standing
Room Only.- A Break in Intergenerational Transmission, in the Reproduction of
Traditions.- 2.3 Godfathers, Uncles and Nephews: The Gathering Foe.- 2.3.1
The Trojan Horse: By the Pricking of My Thumbs.- 2.3.2 Forming the Academy.-
Meanwhile, at the Orthodox PartyA Merry Game of Musical Chairs.- 2.3.3 The
Chess Master.- 2.4 The Campaign: How the War Was Lost and Won.- 2.4.1 The
Orthodox Gambit: Capture the External Commanding Heights.- 2.4.2 Carrots and
Commanders.- 2.4.3 Modus Operandi: Masters, Mandarins and Interlocking
Committees.- References.- 3 Worlds Beyond Cambridge: The Global Web of the
Neoliberal Thought Collective.- 3.1 Conjunctures.- 3.1.1 1930s, The
Prelude.- LSE Versus Cambridge.- Émigré Economists: The Benefactions of Lenin
and Hitler.- 3.1.2 1940s, The Cascade.- 3.1.3 Keynesianism: Divergent
Receptions.- Post-war Affinity in the UK.- Post-New Deal Hostility in the
USA.- 3.2 Spreading the Word: Messiahs, Messages, Methods.- 3.2.1 Ideas and
Ideologies: Manufacturers and Retailers.- 3.2.2 USA: Early Ideological
Entrepreneurs of Libertarianism.- Harold Luhnow: The Volker Fund and its
Dollars.- Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and its Facilitators.-
3.2.3 Europe: Friedrich Hayek and the Mont Pelerin Society.- Antecedents.-
Pilgrims Atop a Mountain, Mont Pelerin, Switzerland, April 1947.- Financial
Sponsors.- The First Meeting of Minds.- Sarcastic Schumpeter, Sceptical
Solow, Scathing Samuelson.- 3.2.4 UK: Antony Fisher, Global Venture
Capitalistof Think Tanks.- 3.3 Branding the Message: The Nobel Prize.-
3.3.1 The Stockholm Connection: Ideological Entrepreneurs.- 3.3.2 Some Early
Awards: Setting the Direction.- Jan TinbergenRagnar Frisch 1969.- Samuelson
1970.- Gunnar MyrdalFriedrich von Hayek 1974.- Milton Friedman 1976.- 3.3.3
Mont Pelerin Society and the NobelA Golden Embrace.- 3.3.4 Cambridge
Heterodoxy?.- 3.3.5 An Ideological Coup.- 3.4 Reaching Politics:
Weaponising the Message.- 3.4.1 Santiago de Chile: Pinochet the Pioneer.-
Chicago and its Cowboys.- Thatcher: Romancing Pinochets Chile.- 3.4.2 The
White House: Reagan, a Disciple.- 3.4.3 10 Downing Street: Thatcher, a
Devotee.- More than its Weight in GoldThe Market Price of Symbolic Capital.-
3.4.4 Pulling Together.- 3.5 Besieging Cambridge: The ChicagoMITLSE
Trinity.- 3.5.1 A Cross-Atlantic Triangle.- 3.5.2 Diversity of Practice.-
3.5.3 Unity of Purpose.- References.- 4 Camp Skirmishes Over Interstitial
Spaces: Journals, Seminars, Textbooks.- 4.1 The Battle of TeruelThe Day
before.- 4.2 Journals.- 4.2.1 EJ Leaves HomeThe Loss of a Flagship.- 4.2.2
CJE ArrivesA Forum of Ones Own.- 4.2.3 Cambridge Economic Policy Review:
One Crowded Hour of Glorious Life.- 4.3 Seminars.- 4.3.1 Cambridge Economic
ClubA Marshallian Precursor: 18841890, 1896?.- 4.3.2 Political Economy
Club: From Keynes to Robertson to KahnDazzling to Dour.- 4.3.3 The Marshall
Society: A Socialisation into Economics and Its Purposes.- 4.3.4 Piero
Sraffas Research Students Seminar: A Precocious Nursery.- 4.3.5 In
Retrospect, Austin Robinson on the Cambridge Circus: The Engine Room of The
General Theory.- 4.3.6 CambridgeLSE Joint Seminar: Jousting Juniors.- 4.3.7
Kahns Secret Seminar at Kings: Fires in the Kitchen.- 4.3.8 The Richard
Stone Common Room: Typhoo and Typhoons.- 4.3.9 Ajit Singhs Political Economy
Seminar at Queens: Young Turks.- 4.3.10 Arestis and Kitson Political Economy
Seminar at St. Catherines College.- 4.3.11 Hahns Churchill Seminar:
OnlyMaths and Neoclassicals, Others Beware.- 4.3.12 Cambridge Growth Project
Seminar at DAE.- 4.3.13 Hahns Quaker Risk Seminar: The Rising Tide.-
4.3.14 Matthewss CLARE Group: The Masters Lodge of Moderate Practitioners.-
4.3.15 LawsonRealism and Social Ontology: Ways of Seeing and Framing.- 4.4
Textbooks.- 4.4.1 Distant Thunder: Keynes and McCarthy, Tarshis and
Samuelson.- 4.4.2 Lawrence Klein and the Paradox of The Keynesian
Revolution.- Puzzle.- Ph.D.At Samuelsons Feet.- Cowles CommissionThe New
Dealers.- The Keynesian Revolution: The Extra
Chapter Klein, Then a Closet
Marxist?.- Beyond Keynes.- UMich and McCarthyism.- Policy to Forecasting.-
Resolution.- 4.4.3 Death of a Revolutionary Textbook: Robinson and
Eatwell.- 4.4.4 An Applied Economics Textbook That Wasnt: Joan and Young
Friends.- 4.5 The Battle of TeruelThe Day After.- Appendix 4.1: First off
the Blocks: Mabel Timlins Keynesian Economics, 1942.- References.- 5 The DAE
Trilogy.- 5.1 Origins and Evolution.- 5.1.1 Origins.- 5.1.2 Evolution:
Substance and Styles.- 5.1.3 Foundations of Stone.- 5.1.4 Reddaways Method:
Eclectic Development.- 5.1.5 Godley: Turbulent Times.- 5.2 End of the Golden
Age: The Decade of Discontent.- 5.3 The Trilogy: Discrete Episodes or a
Serial Campaign?.- Appendix 5.1: DAEFinding a Good Home.- References.- 6
Cambridge Economic Policy Group: Beheading a Turbulent Priest.- 6.1 Charged
Conjuncture.- 6.1.1 Imbroglios of 1974: Old Versus New Cambridge Versus the
Establishment.- 6.1.2 The Enigma of Kahn.- 6.1.3 Kaldor: On Radical Policy
Implications of New Cambridge, 1976.- 6.1.4 Cambridge Squabbles: Spillover
into Whitehall?.- 6.1.5 Triggering Crisis: The Pivot of the OPEC Price
Hikes.- 6.1.6 1979: Enter Margaret Thatcher, Right-Wing, Upfront.- 6.1.7 The
Case of the Odd Consensus: The Letter by 364 Economists, 1981.- 6.1.8
Thatcher in the Garage of the Federal Reserve.- 6.1.9 1981: Brixton Riots,
Toxteth Fires: A Concentration of Hopelessness.- 6.1.10 TheCEPG: A Thorn in
the Thatcher Hide.- 6.1.11 The Bogey of Import Controls and the Spectre of
Bennism.- 6.2 SSRC and CEPG: Dispensing Instant Injustice.- 6.2.1 Posners
Parlour.- 6.2.2 Posners Process.- 6.3 Epilogue.- 6.3.1 Vengeance.- 6.3.2 The
Team Scattered.- 6.3.3 The Model Reincarnated.- 6.3.4 The Rehabilitation of
Wynne.- 6.3.5 Wynne Godley: My Credo .- 6.3.6 The Pacification of the
CEPG.- Appendix 6.1: Old Cambridge, New Cambridge, 1974: and All the Kings
Men.-
1. Letter WG to RFK 23 May
1974. JVR/ vii/228/3/3.-
2. Letter NK to RFK
20 May
1974. JVR/ vii/228/3/14-16.-
3. Letter from RFK and MP to NK 24 May
1974. JVR/vii/228/3/17-20.-
4. Letter from RFK and MP to NK 28 May
1974.
JVR/vii/228/3/24.-
5. Letter from FC to RFK 29 May
1974. JVR/7/228/3/25.-
6.
Reply from RFK to FC 6 June
1974. JVR/7/228/3/24.-
7. In the interim, NK
replied to RFK and MP. JVR/7/228/3/26.-
8. Letter from NK to RFK.
RFK/12/2/132/3.- References.- 7 Unintended Collateral Damage? The Cambridge
EconomicPolicy Group and the Joseph-Rothschild-Posner SSRC Enquiry, 1982.-
7.1 JosephRothschildPosnerGodley.- 7.2 The Posner-the-Saviour Narrative.-
7.3 Setting Up the Enquiry.- 7.4 Who Proposed Rothschild?.- 7.5 Rothschild
Report Writing Process.- 7.6 The Judgement of Rothschild.- 7.7 Between Draft
and Release and Response: Handshakes and Cigars.- 7.8 Did Posner Get Away
with Just a Change of Name?.- 7.9 CEPGCollateral Damage? Or, Traded Down the
River?.- 7.10 The Rothschild Report: Gleanings on Macroeconomic Modelling.-
7.11 Lord KaldorOff the Record, Off the Cuff, Off the Mark?.- 7.12 Lord
Harris Vitriol.- 7.13 Catholicity and Independence.- 7.14 Rothschilds Last
Word.- 7.15 Josephs Last Laugh.- References.- 8 Cambridge Growth Project:
Running the Gauntlet.- 8.1 Background and Conjuncture.- 8.1.1 The Decision.-
8.2 Substantive Issues.- 8.2.1 No Innovation?.- 8.2.2 Catholicity, Turnover
and the Value of Disaggregation.- 8.2.3 Use of Input-Output Tables.- 8.2.4
CGP Presence in PolicyDebates.- 8.2.5 Insularity.- 8.2.6 On Exploiting the
Cheap Labour of Graduate Students.- 8.3 Issues of Procedural Probity.- 8.3.1
Shifting Goalposts Across Evaluations.- 8.3.2 Unequal Application of
Criterion of Commercial Funding.- 8.3.3 Public Good or Private Resource?.-
8.3.4 ESRC Ignored CGP Model Performance: Why?.- 8.3.5 Compromised
Independent Evidence.- 8.4 Other Concerns.- 8.4.1 Reds?.- 8.4.2 Crowding
Out Competitors?.- 8.4.3 Deadweight Loss of Built-up Intellectual Capital.-
8.4.4 Gratuitously Offensive: Up Close and Out of Order.- 8.4.5 The
Consortium: Revived Talk of Conspiracy Theory.- 8.4.6 In Defence, a Lone
Voice, Overruled.- 8.5 Epilogue: CGPLife After Death?.- Appendix 8.1: CGP
Staff Members, Timeline 19601987.- Appendix 8.2: Publications of CGP Staff.-
References.- 9 The DAE Review 19841987: A Four-Year Inquisition.- 9.1 The
Campaign of Attrition.- 9.1.1 Occluded Origins.- 9.1.2 Two Stages, Two
Committees.- 9.2 The Orthodox Gambit.- 9.2.1 The Agenda Revealed.- 9.2.2 The
Game Plan: Four Options.- Closure.- Separation.- Absorption.- Capture.- 9.2.3
External Critiques: Collusion as Consultation?.- 9.3 The Heterodox Defence.-
9.3.1 Solidarity, Testimonies, Rebuttals.- 9.3.2 Chinks in the DAE Armour?.-
9.4 On the Rack: Bleeding the DAE.- 9.4.1 The Secretary General, The Prince
and the Chess Master.- 9.4.2 The Capture.- 9.4.3 How it Transpired, Perhaps
Not Just by Chance.- 9.4.4 Checkmate: A Constitutional Coup.- 9.5 Epilogue.-
Appendix 9.1: DAE Review Committees: Composition and Terms of Reference.-
First Advisory Committee. Constituted: Easter Term 1984; Reported: May 1985.-
Second Advisory Committee: Constituted: Easter Term 1985; Reported April
1987.- Appendix 9.2: Labour Studies Group: Dispersed, Not Defeated.-
References.- Volume II.- 10 Sociology: The Departure of Stray Colleagues in
a Vaguely Cognate Discipline.- 10.1 Early Years: Hostility, Neglect,
Subordination.- 10.2 Sociology: Growing Up Amongst Economists.- 10.3 Hostile
Public Spaces: SSRC, Rothschild-1982 and Sociology.- 10.3.1 Entrenched
Resistance to the Emergence of SSRC.- 10.3.2 In the Court of Public Opinion:
Open Season on Sociology.- 10.3.3 The JosephRothschild Assault.- 10.4 Back
in Cambridge, 19841986: To Remain Or to Exit, That Was the Question.- 10.4.1
Sociology in the DAE Review: Crossfire and Crossroads.- 10.4.2 Cometh the
Hour, Cometh Tony Giddens.- 10.5 Archival Insights: Harboured Preferences
Revealed.- 10.5.1 Do Please Stay, Pleaded the Heterodox.- 10.5.2 Clear Out
Now, Growled the Orthodox.- 10.5.3 Do What Is Best for You, Whispered the
Faculty Board.- 10.5.4 Time to Choose: The Sociologists Speak.- 10.6 Leaving
Home, a Space of Its Own.- References.- 11 Development on the Periphery: Exit
and Exile.- 11.1 Cambridge Development Studies: The Heterodox Inheritance.-
11.1.1 The Capitalist Economy and Its Cambridge Critics.- 11.1.2 Bridges to
Development.- 11.2 Evolution of the Teaching Project: Multiple Identities.-
11.2.1 Timelines.- 11.2.2 In University Space: The Professionalisation of
Development Studies.- The Early Years: Fine-tuning Imperial Instruction,
19261969.- Turbulence and Transformation: Revising the Mandate, 19691982.-
11.2.3 In Faculty Space: The Disciplining of Development Economics.- 11.2.4
Against the Mainstream: Subaltern Perspectives.- 11.3 Development Research:
Ebbs and Flows.- 11.3.1 CambridgeIndia Highway: Cambridge in India.- 11.3.2
CambridgeIndia Highway: India in Cambridge.- 11.3.3 Not Just India.- 11.3.4
Bi-modal Distribution of Development Interest.- 11.4 1996: Divorce and
Eviction.- 11.5 A Credible Counterfactual.- Appendix 11.1: Arguments in
Support of Continuation of Development Studies Course in Cambridge.-
References.- 12 From Riches to Rags? Economic History Becomes History at the
Faculty of Economics.- 12.1 Introduction: Economics and Economic History.-
12.2 The Pre-War Period: 1939, Marshallian.- 12.2.1 At the Faculty of
History.- Cunningham to Clapham via Marshall.- Clapham to Postan via Power.-
12.2.2 At the Faculty of Economics and Politics.- Maurice Dobb, 19001976.-
12.3 Post-War Period-I, 19451980s: Post-Keynesian.- 12.3.1 At the Faculty of
Economics and Politics.- On the DAE Side.- On the Faculty Side.- 12.3.2 At
the Faculty of History.- Munia Postan.- The Turn to Business Studies-I,
David Joslin 19651970.- The Turn to Business Studies-II, Donald Coleman
19711981.- 12.4 Post-War Period-II, 1980s: Unravelling and Divergence.-
12.4.1 At the Faculty of History.- The Turn to Business Studies-III, Barry
Supple 19811993.- Modern Times: Martin Daunton 19972015.- 12.4.2 At the
Faculty of Economics: Turbulence, Transitions and Affinities.- Cluster 1:
HumphriesHorrell.- Cluster 2: KitsonSolomouWeale.- Cluster 3:
OgilvieEdwards.- Cluster 4: Toke Aidt.- 12.5 c.2020, Here, to Where?.-
12.5.1 Economic History at the Faculty of Economics: Full Stop?.- 12.5.2 At
the Faculty of History: New Turnings.- Appendix 12.1: Economic History and
Accounting at the DAE.- Appendix 12.2: Locating Phyllis Deane in National
Accounting and Feminist Discourse: A Supplementary Note.- References.- 13
Research Assessment Exercises: Exorcising Heterodox Apostasy from
Economics.- 13.1 The Agenda.- 13.2 The Teaching Body: Unification,
Hierarchy, Control.- 13.3 1986: Swinnerton-Dyer and the Genesis of the RAE.-
13.4 19861989: Frank Hahn and the Orthodox Capture of the RES.- 13.5 Through
the RES: Controlling Panel Selection.- 13.6 Outcomes.- 13.7 Consequences and
Critiques.- 13.7.1 Gaming.- 13.7.2 Competition and Conflict: Managerialism.-
13.7.3 Individual Stress.- 13.7.4 Medium Over Message: Diamonds for Ever.-
13.7.5 Unethical Research Practices and Shaky Quality Proxies.- 13.7.6 The
Atrophy of Collective Research Traditions and Environments.- 13.7.7 The Loss
of Intrinsic Values.- 13.7.8 Undervaluation of Undergraduate Teaching.- 13.8
The Suppression of Heterodox Economics and Economists.- 13.9 Follow Big
Brother: Elimination of Heterodoxy in USA.- 13.10 1662, Deja Vu.-
References.- 14 Reincarnations.- 14.1 In a Nutshell, ą la Joan.- 14.2 Purges
and Purification.- 14.3 Triumphalism.- 14.4 A Royal Mess: The Queens
Question.- 14.5 Students Speak Up.- 14.5.1 In Cambridge.- 14.5.2 Elsewhere.-
14.6 Faculty Performance: A Summary Report Card.- 14.6.1 Global Ranks.-
14.6.2 RAEs, REFs.- 14.7 Exiles and Reincarnations.- 14.7.1 The DAE
Flagships: CGP and CEPG.- 14.7.2 DAE Industrial Economics: Alan Hughes and
the CBR.- 14.7.3 Judge Business School.- 14.7.4 The Economic Historians.-
14.7.5 Sociology: That Vaguely Cognate Discipline.- 14.7.6 Development.-
14.8 Reluctant Regrets.- 14.8.1 Robin Matthews.- 14.8.2 Frank Hahn.- 14.8.3
David Newbery.- 14.8.4 Tony Atkinson.- 14.8.5 Francois Bourguignon.- 14.8.6
Alan Blinder.- 14.8.7 Peter Diamond.- 14.8.8 Partha Dasgupta via Robert
Neild.- 14.8.9 Another Snowflake Moment?.- 14.9 Donors: Leveraging a
Reboot?.- 14.10 The Great Banyan.- Appendix 14.1: Letter of Protest by
Graduate Students, 2001 1073 References.
Ashwani Saith is an Emeritus Professor at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and former Professor of Development Studies & Director, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics.
