Making Things Technical: Samuelson at MIT
研究萨缪尔森如何将自己定位为技术专家，走“中间道路”以避开政治领域，通过对比芝加哥大学的邀请、战时咨询经历和麻省理工学院的支持，揭示技术专家与政治的关系。
This article examines how Samuelson defined his own role as an economist as a technical expert, who walked what he called the “middle of the road” to—seemingly—stay out of the realm of politics. As point of entry I discuss the highly tempting offers made by Theodore M. Schultz in the 1940s to come over to Chicago, which Schultz persistently repeated over three years and despite strong Chicago faculty resistance. A contrast between Schultz’s own experiences as an economic expert at Iowa State, Samuelson’s work as an external consultant for the National Resources Planning Board during the Second World War, and the firm support of the MIT administration for Samuelson’s research serves to pinpoint the meaning of being technical for Samuelson, and the relation of the technical economic expert to the realm of politics.