The Economic History Association will present a Roundtable, "The Future of
Economic History," at the upcoming AHA meeting in Atlanta on Friday,
January 5 at 4:45 p.m. The five speakers will offer 5-10 minutes of
thoughts on the nature, problems, and future prospects of the field,
followed by open discussion. I am advertising this as widely as possible
in order to draw in a wide range of scholars -- especially social and
cultural historians who have pulled back from economic issues (in large
part, I suspect, because of the heavily econometric methods now practiced
by many economic historians). What I hope emerges from the discussion is
a better sense of how the field can be reshaped to once again include the
questions of politics, culture and ideology that drive so much historical
work at the moment. In other words, this session is aimed at not only
economic historians, but at all the others who may have given up in
frustration upon hitting yet another general equilibrium model. Can we
find ways to talk about the economy, economic change, ideologies that draw
us together rather than dividing along methodological lines? If you are
at the AHA, please come by for discussion and light refreshments.
The five speakers are historians with a diverse range of interests and
approaches. I am sure that their names will be familiar to many of you:
John H. Coatsworth (Harvard University, AHA Pres.)
Naomi R. Lamoreaux (Brown University)
Michael A. Bernstein (UC, San Diego)
Robert S. Duplessis (Swarthmore)
T. J. A. LeGoff (York University)
Convener: Judith A. Miller (Emory)
Please repost this message on any discussion groups you think might be
appropriate. The Economic History Association is working on a wide
range of initiatives to draw more historians back to the field and
wishes to publicize these efforts as broadly as possible. If you have any
questions, contact me via email (histjam@emory.edu) or via phone,
404-727-6564. Thank you very much.
Judith A. Miller
Emory University
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