An Heretical Heir of the Enlightenment: Politics, Policy, and Science in the Work of Charles E. Lindblom

This is primarily, but not exclusively, a book on Lindblom. All the pieces in it bear on his work, either as direct commentary on it or criticism of it, or as extensions of his ideas. But at the same time every piece follows the trajectory of its own ideas into the subject matter in which it delves. And these subjects are many and varied.

Indeed, the prime purpose of this volume is to make the broad public aware of the full scope and amplitude of Lindblom’ s thought and to convey something of the inner coherence that governs it. Anyone who has previously encountered Lindblom only in one manifestation of his multifaceted mind might be surprised to learn that there are so many other facets as well. Merely to list the disciplines to which he has contributed threatens to extend into an academic catalogue of ships. But the truth is that his work is not docilely academic, it refuses to lie down neatly and supinely into the procrustean beds of the established disciplines. Like his closest predecessor, Veblen, he offers a comprehensive treatment of social reality as a whole – together with something of the same heretical thrust against the academic establishment.