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Title: History Matters: Essays on Economic Growth, Technology, and Demographic Change by Timothy Guinnane, William Andrew Sundstrom, Warren C. Whatley ISBN: 0-8047-4398-3 Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr Pub. Date: November, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $65.00

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: History Matters, and how!
Comment: This is a celebratory volume for Paul A. David, the noted Stanford (and subsequently Oxford) economic historian. David is known internationally for his contributions in American economic history, demography, and the economics of science and technology. He has long been engaged in investigating the conditions that give rise to path dependence in micro- and macro-economic phenomena.

The book brings together a group of David's students and colleagues who present seventeen papers. Nine of the papers deal with path-dependence, one of David's trademark issues; four of the papers look to the influence of culture, geography, and political institutions on economies and policies, another area in which David has made important contributions; and four deal with economic growth and demographic change, yet another of David's central concerns.

The cast of authors is impressive, including David's Stanford colleague and Nobel laureate Kenneth Arrow, as well as contemporaries from the old guard in economic history, Peter Temin, Richard Sutch, and Charles Feinstein. Contributors from a younger generation include a number of David's impressive students: Charles Calomiris, Tim Guinnane, Joshua Rosenbloom, Bill Sundstrom, David Weiman, David Weir, and Warren Whatley.

Guinnane, Sundstrom, and Whatley are to be commended for putting together such an outstanding volume. They have surely done their teacher proud.

Rating: 5
Summary: yes, history matters
Comment: The editors of this festschrift for Paul David, one of the greatest living economic historians - and one of those who has influenced leading economists most - have done him proud.

Festschrifts don't always work. They are prone to prolixity, and to be the recepticles of papers unwanted elsewhere. This is not the case here. The editors' decision to focus only on topics associated with Paul David give his Festschrift more unity than most, and Guinnane et al. have persuaded a stellar list of authors to contribute. These include Nobel Laureate Ken Arrow, Charles Feinstein, Tim Besley, David Weir, Warren Sanderson, and several more.

Over four decades Paul David has made seminal, brilliant, and highly imaginative contributions to the measurement of early U.S. economic growth, to explaining that growth, to the economics and economic history of technological change, and to demographic history. For this he deserves the gratitude of all economic historians. The papers reflect his achievement, and point to its ability to inspire more work.

All economic historians need to know about and read chunks of this book.