An accessible account of the role of the modern university in the creation of economics During the late nineteenth century concerns about international commercial rivalry were often expressed in terms of national provision for training and education, and the role of universities in such provision. It was in this context that the modern university discipline of economics emerged. The first undergraduate economics program was inaugurated in Cambridge in 1903; but this was merely a starting point. Constructing Economic Science charts the path through commercial education to the discipline of economics and the creation of an economics curriculum that could then be replicated around the world. Rather than describing this transition epistemologically, as a process of theoretical creation, Keith Tribe shows how the new "science" of economics was primarily an institutional creation of the modern university. He demonstrates how finance, student numbers, curricula, teaching, new media, the demands of employment, and more broadly, the international perception that industrializing economies required a technically-skilled workforce, all played their part in shaping economics as we know it today. This study explains the conditions originally shaping the science of economics, providing in turn a foundation for an understanding of the way in which this new language transformed public policy.

About the Author
Keith Tribe is an economic historian and independent scholar with a long-standing interest in language and translation. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow in History at the University of Tartu and teaches history of economics at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of The Economy of the Word (OUP, 2015).

Reviews
Tribe's book is a worthy recipient of the best book prize of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (2022) and will be a work of reference on the formation of economics as an academic discipline for years to come. * Harro Maas, Oeconomia *
Keith Tribe's new book is fascinating. * Fabio Masini, Roma Tre University *
Constructing Economic Science is a valuable and empirically rich book that explores the making of economics as an academic discipline in the UK in the period 1850-1950. * H-Soz-Kult *
Constructing Economic Science is an outstanding monograph. * Rodger Middleton, University of Bristol, Journal of Modern History *


Awards
Winner of Winner, 2022 Best Book Award, European Society for the History of Economic Thought.



Book Information
ISBN 9780190491741
Author Keith Tribe
Format Hardback
Page Count 440
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 748g
Dimensions(mm) 165mm * 244mm * 36mm