A Perilous Progress: Economists and Public Purpose in Twentieth-Century America. By Michael A. Bernstein. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. Pp. 358. $39.50.

Extract

Reflecting on economists' distinguished record in allocating the economy's scarce military resources during the Second World War, Michael Bernstein writes: “It is one of the great ironies of this history that a discipline renowned for its systematic portrayals of the benefits of unfettered, competitive markets would first demonstrate its unique operability in the completely regulated and controlled economy of total war.” Not to let readers miss the point, Bernstein prefaces this remark by noting that it was “statism,” not “individualism” that had set the historical context in which “the high hopes … of generations of professionalizers could be realized” (p. 89).