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Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science. By Philip Mirowski. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xiv, 655. $35.00, paper

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  • Samuels, Warren J.

Abstract

It is impossible to summarize and critique this book adequately in a short review. Its author is a leading historian of economic thought, skilled in many disciplines, imaginative and penetrating in analysis, and possessed of knowledge, brilliance, and pixie-like cynicism. His More Heat than Light (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989) traced the origins of twentieth-century economics to a mimicking of nineteenth-century physics and mathematics in order to achieve the status of “science.” This book traces the social construction of high theory in economics during World War II and the Cold War to the influence of John von Neumann's general theory of automata and the military funding of basic economic science. Like his earlier book, this is history of economics on a massively ambitious scale—a theory of the entire postwar period.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuels, Warren J., 2002. "Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science. By Philip Mirowski. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xiv, 655. $35.00, paper," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(3), pages 913-915, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:62:y:2002:i:03:p:913-915_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Claus Dierksmeier, 2011. "The Freedom–Responsibility Nexus in Management Philosophy and Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(2), pages 263-283, June.
    2. Koehn, Julia, 2011. "From tools to theories: The emergence of modern financial economics," Wittener Diskussionspapiere zu alten und neuen Fragen der Wirtschaftswissenschaft 16/2011, Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Management and Economics.
    3. Yann Giraud, 2011. "The Political Economy of Textbook Writing: Paul Samuelson and the making of the first ten Editions of Economics (1945-1976)," THEMA Working Papers 2011-18, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    4. Alkire, Sabina & Foster, James, 2011. "Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(7), pages 476-487.

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