Alfred Marshall's lectures to women : some economic questions directly connected to the welfare of the laborer /

This monumental volume, containing 99 essays of uniformly high quality by 72 contributors, is a testament to the excellence of its three editors (economics professors affiliated with the universities of Pisa and Florence, Italy). It illuminates every facet of Alfred Marshall's intellectual development and creativity. Marshall taught mathematics, psychology, and philosophy at Cambridge before gravitating to economics. He invented the economics of the firm and of industry and, similarly, welfare economics. Marshall opened important vistas on competition and economic equilibriums and dynamics, all in an evolutionary framework. He contributed major advances in monetary thought and methodology and for about a half century was regarded as the world's leading economist. This volume traces his attempts to bridge schismatically differing perceptions of the nature of economics itself: one emphasizing affinity to mathematics and physical sciences, the other regarding it closer to evolutionary biology. Marshall favored the latter, but the former came to dominate the profession after the 1930s. Marshall's economics lost favor. In recent years, however, interest in the evolutionary characteristics of economic life has again blossomed. This volume, which demonstrates a solid intellectual foundation, is a very important work in economics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections. J. Murdock emeritus, University of Missouri--Columbia