Daniele Besomi (Ed.). The Collected Interwar Papers and Correspondence of Roy Harrod, Volumes I-Iii (Book Review‪)‬

Daniele Besomi (ed.). The Collected Interwar Papers and Correspondence of Roy Harrod, Volumes I-III. Cheltenham, UK, and Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar, 2004. Pp. lxxxv + 1557. ISBN 1 84376 366 4. 350 [pounds sterling]. Harrod is probably the most underrated economist of the twentieth century. Far from being just the first half of Harrod-Domar, who produced the first Keynesian growth model, Harrod made important and lasting contributions to the theory of the firm, international economics and trade cycle theory. His writings on economic methodology were insightful if not as influential as much of his other work. Most importantly, it was his work that inspired the revival of growth theory in the middle of the twentieth century. The neoclassical theory, which became dominant, was a reaction to his model. His insistence that economic dynamics was about rates of growth determined the nature of growth theory, prevailing over the view, more fashionable in the 1930s and 1940s, that the essence of dynamic economics was dated variables, lags and period analysis. Moreover, unlike most of the growth models that followed it, Harrod's theory was not just about equilibrium rates of growth corresponding to equilibrium positions in static economics. It included analysis of disequilibrium situations. Harrod's wide range of contributions and unique position in the development of economic dynamics give the publication of the three volumes under review the potential to be a major milestone in the production of resources for scholars in the history of economic thought. Besomi's deep knowledge of Harrod's work and his meticulous scholarship have ensured that this potential is more than amply fulfilled.