Journal of Economic Literature
Book Reviews
2026-09-01
Thomas C. Leonard of Princeton University reviews “The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community” by Stephan A. Marglin,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Explores the ways in which the foundational assumptions of economics may undermine a sense of community and justify a world in which individuals are isolated and impoverished in terms of social connections. Discusses economics, the market, and community; what community is and whether it is worth the cost; the cutting edge of modernity; individualism; some history; the move form vice to virtue in a century; how we know when we do not know; sources of the modern ideology of knowledge; taking experience seriously; welfare economics and the nation-state; why enough is never enough; the economics of tragic choices; and the move from imperialism to globalization, by way of development. Marglin is Walter S. Barker Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Index.”