1. History of Economic Thought
Origin of the Phrase “Dismal Science”

2. Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881)
Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, translator, historian, mathematician, and teacher.
Dismal Science
11/27/2018

3. Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881)
“Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question”, Thomas Carlyle's Argued in favor of reintroducing slavery in order to restore productivity to the West Indies: Not a "gay science", I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one; what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science.
Dismal Science
11/27/2018

4. Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881)
Economics is "dismal" in "find[ing] the secret of this Universe in 'supply and demand', and reducing the duty of human governors to that of letting men alone". Instead, the "idle Black man in the West Indies" should be "compelled to work as he was fit, and to do the Maker's will who had constructed him"
Dismal Science
11/27/2018