Foundations of Economic Analysis.

Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,, 1947. From the library of a prominent American economist First edition, first printing, of the book which established mathematics as the foundation of economics, rather than an addendum. This copy comes from the library of Charles J. Hitch (1910-1995), the economist and assistant secretary of defence from 1961 to 1965, with his ink stamp to the front pastedown and free endpaper, and his embossed stamp to the title page. Hitch served in the War Production Board during the Second World War, and worked as head of the RAND Corporation's Economics Division from 1948 to 1961. Samuelson's first book, based on his doctoral dissertation at Harvard, is one of the most influential economic texts of the 20th century. "His doctoral dissertation is regarded by most economists as providing the mathematical foundations for contemporary economics... more than anyone else he bears responsibility for the mathematical bent of economics in the late 20th century" (Pressman, pp. 162-3). Samuelson demonstrates that the common mathematical structure underlying multiple branches of economics is based on a set of basic principles: the optimising behaviour of agents and the stability of equilibrium as to economic systems. Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered and with publisher's device in gilt, covers bordered in blind. Tables, graphs, and formulas in the text. Light rubbing and scratching, sunning to spine, faint browning to endpapers: a very good copy. Fundaburk 2039; Mattioli 3186. Steven Pressman, Fifty Major Economists, 1999.