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Louis posted an essay, Shackles and Dollars, that is well worth reading. It is about the controversy between neoclassical economists and historians over slavery, with a focus on criticisms of Edward E. Baptist's The Half That never Was, a most remarkable book. I wrote this on Louis's Facebook page: "This is a very interesting essay. Quite frankly, the economists as almost always have a very narrow view of life. They think the world, no matter the issue, can be modeled mathematically. And variables isolated as if the world were a mechanism devoid of any and all social relationships, So in the end, there is really no point debating them. That the enormous increase in labor productivity within the slave cotton economy was due to new seeds, with no consideration of the relations of production Baptist so eloquently examines would be funny if it weren't so disgusting. And for the black economist Trevon Logan to argue that Baptist was mainly using slaves to satisfy his own need to tell us something new . . ." is truly preposterous. Though it does show that the neoclassical poison can be imbibed by anyone." _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
