ABSTRACT
The radical intellectual tradition started by Karl Marx never took hold in economics in the United States until the 1960s, when students and a few faculty driven by their concerns about poverty, discrimination, and imperialism began questioning the value of neoclassical economics. They turned to the work of Marxists and other unorthodox thought for guidance. The work of three American Marxists—Paul Baran (1957), Paul Sweezy (1942), and Harry Magdoff (1968)—as well as the German-born but American-educated Andre Gunder Frank (1967) and the Belgian Marxist Ernest Mandel (1962) played an important early role in the formation of ideas that came to be known as radical political economy. (Their most influential works are cited in the references at the end of this chapter.)
