Invitation to Political Economy: Berger and the Comedic Drama of Political, Economic, and Social Life

This working paper compares and contrasts two books that are intended as invitations to their respective disciplines: Berger's Invitation to Sociology and Thomas Mayer's Invitation to Economics (2009) Berger's is a classic, Mayer's is recent and not as widely known. Berger and Mayer both come from a German language background (Austria) but received their graduate education in the United States after WWII (and both in NYC; Berger received his PhD from the New School in 1954 (born 1929); Mayer his PhD from Columbia in 1953 (born 1927)); and both take a rather irreverent look at current practice of the discipline they are asking students to join, at the same time they see great opportunity for the advancement in thought if the discipline was practiced correctly. This paper then sees what is common to both invitations concerning the subject matter to which understanding is hoped for.

Citation (Chicago-Style)

Boettke, Peter J. "Introduction to Political Economy: Berger and the Comedic Drama of Political, Economic, and Social Life" Working Paper, Mercatus Center at George Mason University, October 2009.