Menger’s review assesses Gustav Schönberg’s two-volume Handbuch der politischen Oekonomie (1882) as an innovative arrangement of scholarly expertise. Its central judgment is that collaboration among specialists produces exceptional depth and breadth, but cannot secure theoretical consistency in a discipline whose foundations remain disputed.
Das uns vorliegende Werk ist auf dem Gebiete der politischen Oekonomie eine literarische Erscheinung durchaus neuer Art.
English translation: The work before us is a literary phenomenon of an entirely new kind in the field of political economy.
Menger grounds this claim in the handbook’s organization: twenty-two scholars work within a common plan covering theoretical economics, economic policy, and public finance. Contributors were selected for expertise demonstrated in specialized publications. His examples include Wagner on credit, banking, and taxation; Brentano on the labor question; Neumann on fundamental concepts and price theory; and Sax on transport and communications. The achievement lies in bringing research-based instruction into the systematic form of a handbook. Menger treats this combination of comprehensive coverage and specialist authority as its distinctive scholarly strength.
The review then reverses the perspective: the same division of intellectual labor also generates defects.
Freilich leidet das Werk, eben in Folge seiner Entstehungsart, auch an mancherlei Gebrechen.
English translation: Admittedly the work, precisely in consequence of the manner of its origin, also suffers from various defects.
These defects are more than editorial shortcomings. Political economy remains unfinished, with substantial disagreement over its basic problems; a collaborative treatment must therefore contain contradictions. Uneven contributions and imperfect overall organization compound this difficulty, despite Schönberg’s careful and knowledgeable direction. Menger thus distinguishes the unity of an editorial plan from agreement at the level of scientific principles.
His concluding recommendation preserves that distinction rather than withdrawing the criticism:
All' dies kann uns indess nicht verhindern, das ebenso grossartige als nützliche Unternehmen um der Fülle des gediegenen wissenschaftlichen Stoffes, den es uns bietet, auf das Wärmste zu begrüssen und das Werk allen Jenen zu empfehlen, welche umfassende und sachkundige Belehrung auf dem Gebiete der Volkswirthschaft suchen.
English translation: All this cannot, however, prevent us from welcoming most warmly an undertaking as magnificent as it is useful, for the abundance of sound scientific material which it offers us, and from recommending the work to all those who seek comprehensive and expert instruction in the field of the national economy.
Moving from organizational novelty through structural limitations to qualified endorsement, the short review makes a precise assessment of scholarly synthesis. The handbook’s value rests on the abundance and reliability of its specialized material, not on a resolution of economics’ foundational disputes. Its wider relevance lies in Menger’s recognition that comprehensive exposition and theoretical coherence are distinct achievements.
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