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- Title
Engineering the "Statistical Control of Business": Malcolm Rorty, Telephone Engineering, and American Economics, 1900-1930.
- Authors
Stapleford, Thomas A.
- Abstract
Malcolm Rorty is best known to historians of economics as the primary organizer and founder of the National Bureau of Economic Research. This article situates Rorty's interest in economics against the backdrop of his early career in telephone engineering at American Telephone & Telegraph. I argue that distinct structural features of telephone engineering in general, and AT&T in particular, created overlaps between the practices of engineering and economics, and also opened space for Rorty to craft a broader vision for the "statistical control of business" through quantitatively informed management.
- Subjects
HISTORY of economics -- 20th century; 20TH century United States economy; ENGINEERING -- Economic aspects; NATIONAL Bureau of Economic Research; AMERICAN Telephone &; Telegraph Co.
- Publication
History of Political Economy, 2020, Vol 52, Issue S1, p59
- ISSN
0018-2702
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1215/00182702-8717924