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The dismal science

Posted by Masakim on August 05, 2003

In Reply to: The dismal science posted by S. on August 05, 2003

: Who dubbed economics "the dismal science," and why?

Dismal science, The. Economics, so named by Carlyle:
The social science -- not a 'gay science' but a rueful -- which finds the secret of this Universe in 'supply and demand' ... what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science.
THOMAS CARLYLE: 'On the [word removed in order to comply with Google's Publisher Policy] Question'
From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable by Adrian Room
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Respectable Professors of the Dismal Science. (Carlyle, _Latter Day Pamphlets_, No. 1, 1850)

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