Description: The Industrial Revolution offered promises of material abundance. In nineteenth century Britain, a series of major cooperative thinkers seized on these possibilities. In effect, they turned the mainstream economics of scarcity on its head and together shaped a humane social science. This book moves toward a reconstruction of nineteenth century British cooperative thought. The analysis is rich in insights still relevant to the present--insights concerning employment relations, persistent inequality, and low levels of human development.
Review Quotes: "Economics still needs a fuller treatment, the book asserts, and shows. Darned right. Even if you don't agree that a properly Adam-Smithian economics, called by some 'humanomics, ' entails ignoring community and cooperation, you will benefit from reading this lucid and penetrating book." -- Deirdre McCloskey, Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago
"This book explores the spawning of British cooperative social philosophy out of neoclassical economics. Like all groundbreaking works, it is based on older philosophical concepts such as human nature, individuals, collectives, selfishness, altruism, cooperation, and competition." -- R. F. White, CHOICE"Building a Social Science is not only a welcome addition to the existing scholarship on what used to be termed "la doctrine cooperative" but also an open invitation to carry out further research in this field." -- Tommaso Milani, H-Net Reviews"I found the book really enjoyable, suitable both as a research contribution andfor those who would like to enrich their history of economic thought teaching." -- Gregory Claeys, European Journal of the History of Economic Thought