South Side Blues: An Oral History of the Chicago School

Oral history has always held a rather ambiguous position within the study of economics. While widely read and enjoyed, such interviews are secretly scorned, dismissed as merely a light weight diversion. Yet to conduct revealing and insightful work of this type is difficult, requiring a firm grasp of economics, especially the individual contributions made by those interviewed. This article examines my own attempts to come to grips with the methodology and ideology of the Chicago School through a series of conversations with some nineteen of George Stigler’s contemporaries. I particularly hone in on the way that Stigler helped to shape economic thinking. In considering the value of and techniques associated with oral history, I also explore the methods I used, the difficulties I faced and some of the particularly useful insights I gained by employing this approach. It is often difficult to arrive at a true evaluation and especially an honest feel for the pitched battles that defined economics in the past. Yet the attitudes and emotions of the participants have often been essential in defining the issues and the conduct of the ensuing debates and battles. Oral history, if skillfully conducted, is one of the more useful tools in recapturing and understanding the past history of economics as a fiercely contested discipline. By using this technique, I achieved an understanding of the Chicago School; the battles it chose to fight, the tactics employed for waging these contests and how it chose these battles, which would have been quite unattainable through any alternative method.