Rediscovering Fire
Basic Economic Lessons from the Soviet Experiment
"With the market economy wiped clean away, the government and the people were forced to rediscover fire: to relearn the basic laws of economics and rebuild civilization out of the ashes of ruin. This outlines the scope of the Soviet experiment with socialism: All of economics was put to the test. From the very elementary concept of whether or not economic laws exist objectively, to the relearning of these laws through crisis and reform, to the rediscovery of the institutions necessary for a market economy to function, all economics was relearned from scratch."
Quotes
"I am really impressed by the book: the careful collection of excellent quotations, a well-balanced approach (quite rare!) and transparent organization of ideas."
Janos Kornai, Prof. of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University and author of The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism among other books on socialist economic systems.
"Rediscovering Fire is an ambitious and thought-provoking book. Guinevere Nell demonstrates impressive understanding of the Soviet Union's economic system, and extracts fascinating insights from the experience and lessons of socialism. There are critical implications for the character of economics taught in universities. Students and others interested in alternative approaches to economic theory and policy will learn much from Rediscovering Fire."
Mark Harrison, professor of economics at the University of Warwick and author of Accounting for War: Soviet Production, Employment, and the Defence Burden, 1940-1945, among other books on the Soviet economy.
Rediscovering Fire will be assigned to students in Steven Rosefield's Russian Economics course at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The book was reviewed in a recent issue of The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
More:
View slides from presentation
Buy Rediscovering Fire on Amazon, Algora Publishing, B & N, or Amazon.co.uk
Check out discussion of the book at EconLog here and here
Get occasional updates via Twitter feed and blog
For more information email me at liberty -at- economicliberty.net
Other resources:
Have we really forgotten the lessons of socialism? Check out The Long Goodbye
Watch Commanding Heights from PBS, especially Heresy in the USSR
Check out The Mises Institute and The Marxists Internet Archive for some of the material cited in the book
Check out 17 Moments in Soviet History
Read recent academic papers: the Abram Bergson Memorial Conference papers and the Political Economy Research in Soviet Archives (PERSA) Working Paper Series
Also check out Sov Lit - summaries of Soviet literature
