The first decade of HOPE (1968–79)

Any attempt to review the recent development, condition, and prospects of an academic discipline is an inherently hazardous, if not foolhardy enterprise. But as the flood of academic publications rises inexorably the need for survey articles also increases, notwithstanding their obvious limitations. The present exercise is, admittedly, personal and impressionistic rather than authoritative or exhaustive. Indeed, any effort to select seminal contributions or peak performances would be highly presumptuous; moreover it would expose the limitations of my knowledge and judgment and arouse the lasting animosities of those who consider their achievements have been undervalued! Nevertheless, in view of the encouraging revival of interest in the history of economics during the past decade or so, not only in the U.S.A. and Britain, it seems worth recording for posterity some features of the subject's organisation, content, and teaching, against the background of my somewhat injudicious programmatic observations in the first issue of this journal. ¹