Keith Tribe papers, 1984-2023
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Summary
- Creator:
- Tribe, Keith and Economists' Papers Archive
- Abstract:
- Keith Tribe (b. 1949) is a British economic historian and academic translator whose work covers topics such as political economy, the history of economic thought, the development of economics as a discipline, historical figures Adam Smith and Max Weber, and agricultural economic history. Collection consists of materials documenting Tribe's work as an economic historian, particularly as it relates to British economists and the development of economics as discipline in Great Britain. Materials include subject files on and audiocassettes containing interviews with British economists. Other materials in the collection, comprising electronic files, document select publications, teaching, and other professional activities of Tribe. Acquired as part of the Economists' Papers Archive.
- Extent:
- 2.5 Linear Feet
7 Gigabytes - Language:
- Materials in English.
- Collection ID:
- RL.13148
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection consists of materials documenting Tribe's work as an economic historian, particularly as it relates to British economists and the development of economics as a discipline in Great Britain. The Interviews with Economists series consists of subject files, project papers, audiocassettes, and electronic files containing and related to his interviews with British economists, mostly men, originally conducted for his 1997 book Economic Careers. Subject files, project papers, and electronic files contain biographical information about the interviewees, correspondence, and transcriptions, including edits to transcriptions made by the interviewees before publication. In the interviews, economists discuss their academic studies of economics, detailing the courses they took, works they studied, who their classmates and professors were, and more. They also discuss their careers as professors, providing insight into the development of economics as a discipline in Great Britain, as well as their careers in civil service, from the 1920s to the 1960s.
The Writings series contains electronic materials related to the research and publication of three of Tribe's books, Constructing Economic Science (2021), A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith (2002), and Political Reason and the Language of Change (2022), as well as files related to an article by Tribe. Materials are largely document files and consist of sources, correspondence with publishers and editors, notes, drafts, and proofs, as well as other relevant materials.
The Teaching, Conferences, and Professional Projects series consists of electronic materials related to an economic history course co-taught by Tribe, select conferences he attended, and other professional activities and projects.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Keith Tribe (b. 1949) is a British economic historian and academic translator. He attended Essex University and then pursed graduate studies in social and political sciences, focusing on economic history, at Cambridge University, receiving his PhD in 1977. From 1976 to 2002, he taught sociology (1976-1985) and then economics (1985-2002) at Keele University. From 2019 to 2023, he was Associate Professor of History at the University of Tartu (Estonia), and since 2024, he has been working on a grant-funded project entitled "De-Centering Eighteenth-Century Political Economy: Rethinking Growth, Wealth and Welfare in the Swedish Empire." The project is based at the Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland, where he is currently a Senior Researcher in History. He has published numerous books, articles, and translations related to topics including political economy, the history of economic thought, the development of economics as a discipline, historical figures Adam Smith and Max Weber, and agricultural economic history.
Source: Keith Tribe's personal website, "About" and "CV" pages, accessed 2025 August 08.
- Acquisition information:
- The Keith Tribe papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library as a gift from Keith Tribe in 2024.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Leah Tams, August 2025.
Accessions described in this collection guide: 2024-0172.
- Arrangement:
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Arranged into three series: Interviews with Economists; Writings; and Teaching, Conferences, and Professional Projects.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
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Access note. Some materials in this collection are electronic records that require special equipment. Contact Research Services with questions.
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- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Keith Tribe papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.
- Permalink:
- https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1jt9x