Biographical directory of the Council of Economic Advisers /

The focus is primarily on the contributions made by the 45 people who were appointed to the council of Economic Advisers from its inception in 1946 through 1985. The essays, introduced with a brief history of the Council, range in length from three to eight or nine pages and were written by three dozen contributors, mostly economists. Basic facts on birth, death, and education are included; coverage of family and background, professional activities, and honors varies in detail from essay to essay. The preface notes that contributors address the questions, "Who were and are these people, what were their ideas, and how did they influence economic thought and government behavior"; but it says nothing about the methods of gathering information except that "authors have gone through the relevant literature." A source such as The President and the Council of Economic Advisers, Interviews with CEA Chairmen, ed. by Erwin C. Hargrove and Samuel A. Morley (CH, Feb '85) deserved mention. Some of the works mentioned in the body of the essays are cited too incompletly to be readily identified; and the individual bibliographies (primarily limited to short lists of the writings of the Council members) would have been more useful had they been longer. There is an index of names as well as an appendix "Membership in the CEA by Presidential Administrations." Recommended only for libraries having considerable interest in the fields of government, policy, and economics. -B. I. Salter, Yale University