Race and nation in Marshall's histories

Simon John Cook

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2013, vol. 20, issue 6, 940-956

Abstract: The paper makes a plea for engaging with the racist components of past thought as opposed to either ignoring them or exploiting them for the sake of propaganda. The case of Alfred Marshall is used to illustrate how facing the idea of race in past thinkers can generate valuable insights in the history of economics. The main body of the paper traces the development of Marshall's idea of race. It further points to a gap between this idea and some of his written statements, which it explains as following from Marshall's anxiety that his historical introduction to his Principles of Economics (1890) not appear out-of-date. The derivation of Marshall's idea of race is connected to the derivation of his idea of nationality. Where ties of blood and common descent provided the social bond in primitive and ancient societies, an internal principle of nationality provides the equivalent for modern nations. But this principle of nationality is seen to be a general principle of social identity of profound relevance for understanding our early twenty-first-century societies and standing at the heart of the recent 'Marshallian revival'. An inquiry into Marshall's idea of race thus indirectly generates insight into the intellectual roots of contemporary Marshallian ideas.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2013.815243

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