think hard, think well

Longtime readers of this blog will know about my interest in economics, which goes back to high school, at least. (My mother tells me that my late grandfather, whom I didn’t know that well, majored in economics in college–maybe it’s genetic.) It’s been an aspiration of mine to publish something about economics.

I have tried to incorporate insights from political economy literature into both of my monographs, but neither ancient historians nor political economists have quite known what to make of my writing in that vein. (A few years ago even reached out to a politics professor in Scotland whose work on ancient Rome I had found interesting, but he read over some of my chapters and didn’t feel that he could offer any helpful feedback.)

I’m pleased to announce that one of my minor dreams has come true. A economist colleague of mine from the Czech Republic, Tomáš Evan, has just published a book of economic history, and I am listed as a coauthor (with another economist, Jonathan Warner) for contributions to two sections and some work editing the book overall. The project took about five years since Tomáš first approached me about being part of it, and the book ended up looking quite different than I expected when I agreed.

But it’s now in print, and I congratulate Tomáš for all his work. I don’t think you can buy it from the USA yet, but here is where you can see the front matter and first chapter.

Tomáš Evan, with Jonathan Warner and Benjamin Giffone, Economics Before Economics: Chapters of History of Economic Thought before Adam Smith (Prague: Czech Technical University Publishing, 2024). ISBN 9788001072875.