List of Figures vii
List of Tables ix
Preface xi
List of Abbreviations xix
Introduction: Economics and Society 1
Three Trajectories 7
Critical Organized Comparisons 12
National Constellations 15
The Dialectical Relationship between Culture and Economics 28
Chapter One: Institutional Logics in Comparative Perspective 31
Federal Constitutionalism in America 32
The Rise and Fall of British Elitism 40
The Transformations of French Statism 50
Institutional Complementarities and the Coherence of Social Life 59
Chapter Two: The United States: Merchant Professionals 61
Forms of Academic Entrenchment 63
The Meaning of Science in American Economics 77
The Academic Roots of Public Expertise 96
The Economics Industry 114
American Economists, from Professional Scientism
to Scientific Professionalism 125
Chapter Three: Britain: Public-Minded Elites 129
A Late but Extensive Institutionalization 131
The Scientific and Moral Transformation of British Economics 148
Administrators and Specialists 163
Economic Persuasion 175
The Waning High Culture of British Economics 183
Chapter Four: France: Statist Divisions 185
A Fragmented Academicization 187
The Nationalization of Economic Expertise 203
The "Administrative Economists" 215
The Missing Private Jurisdiction 225
Economists as Intellectuals, Intellectuals as Economists 230
The Segmented Worlds of French Economics 234
Conclusion: Economists and Societies 237
The Social Structures of Economics in Comparative Perspective 241
Contribution of a Sociology of Economic Knowledge to
Economic Sociology 261
Appendix 263
Notes 269
References 315
Index 369

Economists and Societies is the first book to systematically compare the profession of economics in the United States, Britain, and France, and to explain why economics, far from being a uniform science, differs in important ways among these three countries. Drawing on in-depth interviews with economists, institutional analysis, and a wealth of scholarly evidence, Marion Fourcade traces the history of economics in each country from the late nineteenth century to the present, demonstrating how each political, cultural, and institutional context gave rise to a distinct professional and disciplinary configuration. She argues that because the substance of political life varied from country to country, people's experience and understanding of the economy, and their political and intellectual battles over it, crystallized in different ways--through scientific and mercantile professionalism in the United States, public-minded elitism in Britain, and statist divisions in France. Fourcade moves past old debates about the relationship between culture and institutions in the production of expert knowledge to show that scientific and practical claims over the economy in these three societies arose from different elites with different intellectual orientations, institutional entanglements, and social purposes.
Much more than a history of the economics profession, Economists and Societies is a revealing exploration of American, French, and British society and culture as seen through the lens of their respective economic institutions and the distinctive character of their economic experts.

Marion Fourcade is associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley.