Shelley called poets, ‘the unacknowledged legislators of the world’. Here John Ramsden describes their now largely forgotten contribution to economics. From Defoe to Pound, poets looked at the economic orthodoxy of their day, saw much that was unacceptable, and tried to suggest alternatives. Some of their suggestions led onto perilous ground; but many of their criticisms have since been vindicated. Often witty and always opinionated, these 11 writers offer fresh perspectives on the economic theories that still rule our lives.<\/p>\n
The poets included are Defoe, Swift, Coleridge, Scott, Shelley, de Quincey, Ruskin, Morris, Shaw, Belloc and Pound. Together they span a vast range of opinion and knowledge of the world. Some were closely involved with policy, some were radical, even revolutionary, others were reactionary: all of them contributed very personal and often illuminating insights into the dismal science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Ramsden’s fascinating, entertaining history of eleven great poets who made significant contributions to economic theory and practice, from Shelley to Hilaire Belloc and John Ruskin.
Introduction 7
\nDaniel Defoe 1660-1731 17
\nJonathan Swift 1667-1745 35
\nPercy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822 53
\nSamuel Taylor Coleridge 1772-1834 71
\nSir Walter Scott 1771-1832 89
\nThomas de Quincey 1785-1859 107
\nJohn Ruskin 1819-1900 123
\nWilliam Morris 1834-1896 145
\nGeorge Bernard Shaw 1856-1950 161
\nHilaire Belloc 1870-1953 181
\nEzra Pound 1885-1972 195
\nFurther Reading 213
\nAcknowledgements 216
\nIndex 217<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41932,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[21064],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41145","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-sport-recreation","7":"author-by-author-john-ramsden","8":"publisher-pallas-athene","10":"first","11":"instock","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n