The Chicago School : How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business

This "admirably detailed and thoroughly welcome history" provides a fascinating examination of a pivotal moment in the evolution of economic theory ( The Economist ). When Richard Nixon said "We are all Keynesians now" in 1971, few could have predicted that the next three decades would result in a complete transformation of the global economic landscape. The transformation was led by a small, relatively obscure group within the University of Chicago's business school and its departments of economics and political science. These thinkers — including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Robert Lucas, and others — revolutionized economic orthodoxy in the second half of the 20th century, dominated the Nobel Prizes awarded in economics, and changed how business is done around the world. Written by a leading European economic thinker, The Chicago School is the first in-depth look at how this remarkable group came together. Exhaustively detailed, it provides a close recounting of the decade-by-decade progress of the Chicago School's evolution. As such, it's an essential contribution to the intellectual history of our time.

A landmark: the first book to provide an in-depth history of the Chicago School of Economics, which sprang from the economics departments at the University of Chicago and its business school in the mid-twentieth century and went on to revolutionize how we think about economics and business.
When Richard Nixon said We are all Keynesians now in 1971, few could have predicted that the next three decades would have resulted in a complete transformation of the global economic landscape. This transformation was led chiefly by a small but potently influential circle of thinkers teaching or trained in Chicago's departments of economics and political science and its business school—many of whom had worked in relative obscurity for decades.
These thinkers—including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Robert Lucas, and others—revolutionized economic orthodoxy in the second half of the twentieth century, utterly dominated the Nobel Prizes awarded in economics, and changed how business is done around the world.
Written by a leading European economic thinker with his own long ties to the University of Chicago, The Chicago School is the first in-depth look at how this remarkable group of thinkers came together, and how their influence and importance grew around the world.

Publishers Weekly

At its narrowest definition, Chicago School refers to a movement in economics whose central figure was Milton Friedman. At its broadest definition, the term refers to a system of research encouraged at the University of Chicago since its founding in 1892, which has produced luminaries in the natural and social sciences and a distinctive style of exposition and debate. This book begins with both definitions and explores how the broad Chicago tradition attracted and shaped the researchers who built an intellectual movement that not only revolutionized economics and finance, but was deeply influential in law, sociology and government. Emphasizing the links between the lives and ideas of dozens of famous Chicago researchers, it spans many intellectual fields over more that a century. The sometimes dizzying result is held together by core principles that define the Chicago tradition: insistence that ideas must be supported by both theory and data, hard work and vigorous debate. In particular, the workshop system nurtured strong personalities who could build and defend orthodoxy, and dissenters of equal strength. As an intellectual or institutional history, this study is superficial due to its breadth, but its exploration of the interaction between institution and idea is unique and fascinating. (May)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

When Richard Nixon said #x93;We are all Keynesians now" in 1971, few could have predicted that the next three decades would result in a complete transformation of the global economic landscape. The transformation was led by a small, relatively obscure group within the University of Chicago's business school and its departments of economics and political science. These thinkers #x97; including Milton Friedman, Gary Becker, George Stigler, Robert Lucas, and others #x97; revolutionized economic orthodoxy in the second half of the 20th century, dominated the Nobel Prizes awarded in economics, and changed how business is done around the world. Written by a leading European economic thinker, The Chicago School is the first in-depth look at how this remarkable group came together. Exhaustively detailed, it provides a close recounting of the decade-by-decade progress of the Chicago School's evolution. As such, it's an essential contribution to the intellectual history of our time Introduction......Page 6 Chapter 1......Page 24 Chapter 2......Page 50 Chapter 3......Page 80 Chapter 4......Page 114 Chapter 5......Page 160 Chapter 6......Page 202 Chapter 7......Page 244 Chapter 8......Page 292 Chapter 9......Page 328 Epilogue......Page 362 Bibliography......Page 366 Notes......Page 398 Index......Page 420