Reconsidering the Classics of Political Economy.

• Author: Whaples, Robert M.

What is a "classic"? There will never be a definitive list. Yet in almost every field there are exceptional works of great influence that have changed our understanding of the world. Economics is no exception.

In this issue of The Independent Review, we have invited authors to reconsider thirteen works of enduring significance in the field of political economy. We asked them to reread a particular classic, put it into context, decide whether its arguments work, and discuss its usefulness for today. We do not propose that these works have been the most influential (although most of diem have been very influential) or that the arguments in them are correct. In fact, the reader may not have previously encountered a couple of them, and several of them appear to have deep flaws. Rather, we think that they deserve a rereading (or an initial reading) because of the issues they raise and the insights they contain.

Speaking of classic works of literature, Louise Cowan explains that the classics "guard the truths of the human heart from the faddish half-truths of the day by straightening the mind and imagination and enabling their readers to judge for themselves." Moreover, she suggests that one "should read a classic with pencil in hand.... The very act of underlining and annotating serves to engage the reader in a conversation with the text" (1998, 23). I will add that reading "with a pencil in hand" also allows the reader to engage in a conversation with himself or herself. A few years ago I taught a seminar on Adam Smith. I was somewhat disappointed in rereading my own copies of The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which I had purchased in graduate school. The disappointment wasn't in Smith but in my younger self for making too few marginal comments--thus depriving my older self of a glimpse of my own perspectives and insights (and errors?) from more than thirty years earlier. Writing as you read captures so many potentially brilliant ideas before they evaporate. I admonish my students not to...