Harvard University: Radical Economics Professors

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Harvard University: Radical Economics Professors and the book "The Capitalist System"

1972 book

In 1972, three radical (i.e. Marxist) economics professors at Harvard University published a book entitled "The Capitalist System: A Radical Analysis of American Society", Prentice-Hall, Inc., that was based on an alternative economics course that they had developed in 1968 to counter more orthodox economics teachings there. The team of Richard C. Edwards, Michael Reich and Thomas E. Weisskopf, put together, not only the course known as "Social Science 125" in 1968-69, but extended it to a compendium book over over 520 pages, featuring the leading marxist economists of its day as contributors to 12 chapters on various economic issues as seen from a marxist perspective.

The authors/editors were very open about their own marxism and how the book came about, saying that "This book is only in the most immediate sense the result of our own work. It originated in the collective effort of a larger group of graduate students and junior faculty to develop a radical alternative to the Harvard Economics Department's standard fare of courses...In this book we have tried to organize, to extend and to communicate the main themes of Social Scienes 125 so as to make available to others the results of our collective experience."

The were influenced by the writings of such marxists as:

The editors wrote that they were "greatly indebted" to these individuals, as "we were attracted to a Marxist perspective. This is no coincidence: The Marxist tradition of social concern, critical analysis, and interdisciplinary theory is naturally congenial to the study of the complext issues confronting us."

"We do not find everything that Marx or his followers have written to be useful, or even relevant or correct....Nonetheless our primary intellectual debt is to Karl Marx. His approach to social problems has influenced use deeply", and then they went on to quote Ernesto (Che) Guevera Che Guevera as best describing their position. Guevera went on to praise Marx as the guiding light to "truths so evident" and that "the world must not only be interpreted, it must be transformed."

The authors credit the "other members of the staff of Social Sciences 125 as having helped them work on the book (1968-1970). Some of these names are familiar as belong to radical economists organizations such as the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE), and others as advisers to the Democratic Party. They are:

Constructive criticism from member of the Harvard URPE chapter were:

[KW: Some of these individuals names above will show up in the marxist Democratic Socialists of America , the Communist Party USA and its split-off, the Committees of Correspondence, New American Movement (NAM), URPE, and the Socialist Scholars Conference (SSC)].


Index, Chapter by Chapter, of Contributing Writers to "The Capitalist System"

The following individuals were the authors of selections put into each "Part" and "Chapter" in the book. The original source for each work was given in the chapter introduction, while identifications of each contributor were located in the "Bibliographical Notes" section as the end of the book (and are reproduced en toto below).

Part I: Problems of Capitalism Chapter I: "What's Wrong in America?"

  • Barbara Hayes
  • Studs Terkel - has a radio show in Chicago; he is a recognized master of the art of journalistic interviewing. [KW: Terkel was identified in both the Congressional Record and in the "New Mobe Staff Study", 1970, as a member of the CPUSA]
  • Elinor Langer - is a free-lance journalist whose writings have appeared in various periodicals including Science and The New York Review of Books
  • James Herndon - has been a merchant seaman, a file clerk, a machinist, an oboe player and - most recently - a schoolteacher
  • Lewis Mumford - has written numerous books about cities and the impact of modern technology on society
  • Ngo Vinh Long - "Imperialism: The American Impact on Vietnam" - is a Vietnamese graduate student at Harvard Un. who has been active in the peace movement. He edits and publishes a monthly bulletin, Thoi-Bao Ga, which carries news from Vietnam. KW: Long was one of the top South Vietnamese leftists in the Hanoi Lobby
  • Robin Blackburn - is an editor of the British bi-monthly Marxist periodical New Left Review. He has taught sociology at the London School of Economics

Part II: The Structure of the Capitalist System Chapter 2: "The Study of Historical Change: The Emergence of Capitalism"

  • Karl Marx - hardly needs an introduction. His writings have both contributed to the analysis of the capitalist system and have been a source of inspiration for revolutionaries throught the world
  • Paul Baran - was the only Marxist economist to hold a professorship at a major American university in the last twenty years; he taught economics at Stanford University until his death in 1964
  • Eric Hosbawm - is an eminent Marxist historian and Reader in History at Birbeck College, University of London
  • Maurice Dobb - is an eminent Marxist economist who recently retired from a Readership in Economics at Cambridge University, where he had taught since 1924
  • Friedrich Engles - was a German-born socialist, manufacturer, and writer, best known for his lifelong association and close collaboration with Karl Marx
  • Eugene Genovese- teaches history at the University of Rochester. He has written numerous articles on slavery in the Western Hemisphere from a Marxist perspective. [KW: Genovese later defects from marxism and issued a denunciation of his previous thoughts and actions, especially pertaining to supporting the communists in the Vietnam war]

Chapter 3: "The Capitalist Mode of Production"

Chapter 4: "The Evolution of American Capitalism"

Part III: The Functioning of Capitalism in America Chapter 5: "Inequality"

Chapter 6: "Alienation"

Chapter 7: "Racism"

Chapter 8: "Sexism"

Chapter 9: "Irrationality'"

Chapter 10: "Imperialism"

Part IV: Toward An Alternative to the Capitalist System Chapter 11: "Contradictions of Advanced Capitalism"

Chapter 12: "Visions of a Socialist Alternative"

References

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  1. ↑ Covert Cadre: The Institute for Policy Studies, S. Steven Powell, Greenhill, 1987
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