Contributions to Political Economy Advance Access published online on June 22, 2007
Contributions to Political Economy, doi:10.1093/cpe/bzm019
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JOAN ROBINSON AND MAURICE DOBB ON MARX1
School of English, Communication and Cultural Studies, University of Western Australia
This paper examines the formation of Joan Robinson's early views on Marx through a dialogue with Maurice Dobb and then the reception of these views at the time by Kalecki, Keynes and some prominent reviewers. It considers how her views were formed and developed in this dialogue and assesses how her position differed from those of others interested in Marx and working in Cambridge at the time, including Piero Sraffa. It concludes that, despite certain misreadings and limitations, Robinson's reading of Marx was not of inconsequence and that she was not unaware of the different approach she took to Marx.
1 The correspondence between Joan Robinson and Maurice Dobb is in the Joan Robinson papers held in the King's College Modern Archives, Cambridge (JVR); as also the correspondence between Richard Kahn and Joan Robinson (RFK); the remainder of the Dobb papers, and the papers of Piero Sraffa referred to, are in the Dobb archives and in the Sraffa Papers, in the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. The papers of Austin Robinson are in his archives in the Marshall Library, Faculty of Economics and Politics, Cambridge University. For permission to publish, and help with my work, I wish to thank the Provost and Fellows, and the Archivist, of King's College, Cambridge; the Faculty of Economics, and the Marshall Librarian, University of Cambridge; the Master and Fellows, and the staff of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge. I am grateful to the Cambridge Political Economy Society Trust for support for this research. Thanks also to Geoff Harcourt and Stephanie Blankenburg for helpful discussion, and to the editors of this journal for their suggestions.