ABSTRACT
You are a complete cipher to the outside world. (RFK to PS, 17 February 1933; SP: C/150)
3.1 Sraffa and the Cambridge Economics Faculty My aim in this paper was to reconstruct the academic figure of Sraffa at Cambridge as it emerges from his papers, his correspondence with the economists with whom he had special relations, and the official documents of the university,1 in particular in connection with his role in the Faculty of Economics and Politics, to which he belonged from 1927 to 1965. At Cambridge academic life is indissolubly bound up with the college that one belongs to. In Sraffa’s case this was King’s, where he began as a member of High Table to become later a College member, and Trinity, where was appointed Fellow in 1939; again, for this aspect of Sraffa’s life and academic experience I shall endeavour to give an account as far as possible based on the existing documentation.2 A word of warning is necessary here: the figure of Sraffa cannot be fully understood and interpreted without reconstructing the interconnections with the scientific, cultural and political events in his life. Here, therefore, I cannot pretend to offer anything more than a few pieces to fit together with others to fill out the broad picture. In the following sections I present a detailed examination of the various posts held by Sraffa at the University of Cambridge.
