Bringing Schmoller to America: Notes on the Translation of “The Idea of Justice in Political Economy”

Abstract

We examine the historical background of the translation and subsequent publication of Gustav Schmoller's "The Idea of Justice in Political Economy" in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. The first of Schmoller's writings which was translated into English, we use archival correspondencepredominantly between one of the translators, Ernst von Halle, and Schmollerto reconstruct the proceedings leading to its appearance in February 1894. In a further step, we highlight the role that the British economic historian William J. Ashley played in contributing to additional translations of Schmoller's work. Finally, we engage in the debate as to why comparatively little of Schmoller's work has been translated into English and suggest that in addition to historical dynamics related to World War I leading to the breakdown of ties between Germany and America, there were also very personal reasonsespecially for both von Halle and Ashleynot to work together with the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Methods for Understanding Economic Change: Socio-Economics and German Political Economy, 1896–1938

“…Learning German was a common way to access the best political economy in the late 19 th century, and this was reinforced by requirementssuch as in doc-toral programs in the United Statesto demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language (Senn 1989;McAdam and Störring 2016). This changed in the 20 th century, however, as English came to be the dominant scientific language in economics.…”