EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

AEH: WORLD.PHYL: Living Economic and Social History

Pat Hudson (Hudsonp at cardiff.ac.uk)

Tue May 15 09:09:08 EDT 2001

                ABSTRACTS IN ECONOMIC HISTORY
                     (c) 2001 EH.Net
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Name:  Pat Hudson
Email:  Hudsonp at cardiff.ac.uk
Institution:  Cardiff University

Co-author:  Edited by Pat Hudson on behalf of the Economic History 
Society with the assistance of Rachel Bowen

Title:  Living Economic and Social History

Internet Address of abstracted work:  not available

By mail:
Pat Hudson
HISAR
Cardiff University
Cardiff CF1 3XU, UK

Language:  English

Abstract:
Living Economic and Social History is a collection of more than 100 
original essays written to mark the 75th anniversary of the Economic 
History Society. Contributors were asked to write to the brief "What 
economic history means to me" or "What economic and social history 
means to me." Most authors discuss the nature of economic and social 
history, past, present and future. Several trace their early 
influences and relate changes in the discipline to their own career 
path, memories and reflections. Many write of the key relationship 
between history and economics, particularly what historical study can 
bring to the discipline of economics. Others praise the broad church 
nature of the subject, and of the Society, emphasising the place of 
social history and the relationship between economic and social 
history and other social sciences. Several contributors write, above 
all, of the need for economic history to be accessible, appealing and 
entertaining whilst addressing big moral questions.

Contributors include major names in the subject: W. W.Rostow, Charles 
P. Kindleberger, Immanuel Wallerstein, E. J. Hobsbawm, Francois 
Crouzet, Maurice Beresford, Stanley Engerman, Riitta Hjerppe, David 
Landes, Paolo Malanima, Patrick O'Brien, Harold Perkin, Barry Supple, 
Joan Thirsk, F. M. L. Thompson, Gabriel Tortella, Jan de Vries and 
many more.

Like history itself, the essays can be read in many ways. They can be 
analysed in relation to their theoretical and empirical content; 
prosopographically, as a (possibly unique?) exercise in the 
collective biography of a profession; as a series of statements about 
the state of economic history and its links to other subjects. But, 
like history, they can also be approached in another way. They can 
simply be enjoyed, for what they are: stories, reflections and 
recollections, critical, speculative, entertaining, personal and 
human. There are Klondike spaces, Damascus roads, love affairs, 
unintended consequences, paths, patterns, dialogues, lives and 
livelihoods. We meet parachutists and truffle hunters, "big think" 
and "little think" types. From Japan to Italy via Australia, France, 
Spain, Finland, Germany, North America and Great Britain: an 
intellectual odyssey, encounters with "poseurs," giants, explorers, 
martyrs, saggar makers' bottom knockers and other ordinary folk.

Bibliography: Hudson, Pat, editor. "Living Economic and Social 
History." Essay collection, Economic History Society. 2001.

Living economic and social history pp. xvi+480
Price £15 (£10 to Society members.isbn: 0-9540216-0-6
Available from
Maureen Galbraith
Department of Economic and Social History
University of glasgow
4, University Gardens
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
ehsocsec at arts.gla.ac.uk

Subject:  C
Geographical Area:  0
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