Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk · 1888
Böhm-Bawerk’s brief review assesses the second edition of Carl Umpfenbach’s textbook through the tension between conceptual continuity and practical improvement. More than twenty-five years after the first edition, revision has left its foundations largely intact:
Wie der Verfasser in seinem Vorwort bemerkt, hatte er „nach einem so langen Zeitraum mit den ungeheuersten politischen, volkswirthschaftlichen und finanziellen Umwandlungen“ zwar allen Anlass, die neue Bearbeitung zu einer durchgreifenden zu gestalten, allein an den Grundgedanken fand er fast nichts zu ändern.
English translation: As the author remarks in his preface, he had indeed, "after so long a period with the most tremendous political, economic, and financial transformations," every occasion to make the new revision a thoroughgoing one; yet in its fundamental ideas he found almost nothing to alter.
The reviewer confirms this self-assessment:
In der That ist der Grundcharakter des Werkes fast derselbe geblieben.
English translation: In fact the fundamental character of the work has remained almost the same.
His verdict balances praise for concision and originality against reservations about conceptions and expressions bordering on the bizarre. The review moves from publication history to intellectual character, then to the edition’s increased usefulness: judicious additions, updated references and fiscal statistics, and attention to advances in scholarship. Its significance lies in distinguishing the persistence of a textbook’s basic ideas from improvements in its value as a working guide to public finance.
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