As historians of economics, we are most used to dealing with the finished work of economists: the written words, diagrams, and math of those we study. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have research notes, diaries, or oral interviews, or to attend seminars. These are valuable resources from which we can learn more directly (than from their published pieces) how our subjects think about doing economics as they are doing it—or at least, very soon afterward. Their tales of traveling offer one such resource that enable us to capture that process, but it has its own especial characteristics. By studying their travel reports, the historian is led directly into economists' experiences of the economies they visited. We have an almost firsthand entry into what they saw, how they interpreted those impressions, and how they dealt with those experiences and reasoned with them to make sense of them. They enable us...
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June 1, 2022
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Research Article|
June 01 2022
Travelers' Tales: Their Values and Virtues
Mary S. Morgan
London School of Economics, by email: [email protected]
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History of Political Economy (2022) 54 (3): 571–583.
Citation
Mary S. Morgan; Travelers' Tales: Their Values and Virtues. History of Political Economy 1 June 2022; 54 (3): 571–583. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-9779684
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