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Book Reviews / the Rudolf Steiner Library NewsletterThe Romantic EconomistImagination in EconomicsBy Richard Bronk; Cambridge University Press,2009, 382 pgs. Review by Christina RootRichard Bronk, a visiting professor at the London School ofEconomics, spent seventeen years working in international businessin the City of London; in his study The Romantic Economist:Imagination in Economics he combines the practitioner’s experienceof how economists think with the historian’s knowledge ofhow things came to be the way they are. A neglected aspect ofhistory that he considers most important is the Romantic reactionto the rise of industrialism and against utilitarianism, withits reductive vision of the humanbeing as homo economicus.Generally, the Romantics areregarded as having stepped offthe road toward progress, and,therefore, as having inevitablybeen left behind by history.Bronk disagrees vehementlywith this assessment and seeksto recover both their critiqueand their alternative vision inorder to apply them to presentdebates in economics.His book, published in Februaryof this year, is particularlytimely. The urgency of the globalfinancial crisis provides an opportunity to rethink business asusual, and Bronk’s book provides a thoughtful and provocativeplace to begin that process for economists and laypeople alike.In an article written since the book was published, Bronk arguesthat the present crisis stems, in part, from the entrenched refusalto recognize that the imagination, the faculty most prizedby the Romantics, determines the future in ways that can’t beforeseen or measured no matter how sophisticated the methodsof analysis and prediction. 1 The activity of imagining guaranteesthat the future is always essentially unknowable because as yetuncreated. According to Bronk, failure to recognize the role theimagination plays got us into the crisis, but understanding andappreciating the imagination can help get us out of it. He callsfor a new breed of thinker—the Romantic Economist—whosecreativity will help transform the economic realm into one thatembodies human possibilities more fully, with a broader perspectiveand greater humility.Using the Romantics to deepen our understanding of theimagination is the book’s central focus, but Bronk providesother equally compelling reasons for turning to Romantic thinkers.He distills from Romantic thought a number of differentideas which together constitute a radical rethinking of the roleeconomics should play in society.Continues on page 50.1 Rorotoko, May 22, 2009. www.rorotoko.com/index.php/article/richard_bronk_book_interview_romantic_economist_imagination_economics/New Books on CurativeEducationReview by Joyce ReillyThe Children of the Curative Education Course. WilhelmUhlenhoff, Floris Books, 2008. (German, 1994). 262 pgs.The Therapeutic Eye: How Rudolf Steiner Observed Children.Peter Selg, SteinerBooks, 2008. 88 pgs.Karl Koenig: My Task. Autobiography and Biographies.Karl Koenig, edited by Peter Selg. Floris Books, 2000. 164 pgs.Karl Koenig’s Path into Anthroposophy: Reflections fromHis Diaries. Peter Selg, Floris Books, 2006, 80 pgs.A Rosicrucian Soul: The Life Journey of Paul MarshallAllen. Russell Pooler, Lindisfarne Books, 2009. 310 pgs.A sociology professor of mineonce said that most intentional communities,be they utopian or dedicatedto a specific task, last aboutseventy years. The Camphill movement,the most visible, enduring,and widespread manifestation ofRudolf Steiner’s curative education,is entering its seventy-first year fullof vigor and promise for the future.Besides being glad to see one moresocial truism debunked, I am heartenedby the flourishing of this workand the recent publications thatexplore the foundations of curativeeducation, the life and thought of its most well-known proponent,Karl Koenig, and a glimpse at the path of one of the greatpersonalities who is associated withboth Camphill and anthroposophy,Paul Marshall Allen.••In The Children of the CurativeEducation Course, Wilhelm Uhlenhofftakes us back to 1924, whenRudolf Steiner gave the curativeeducation course. Ill and pressed fortime, Steiner was extremely activein these days, and his tendency toteach with the participation of hisaudience was much on view here inthis foundational course. This was not an open course (it wasnot advertised or generally announced, which was quite unusual)but a personal dialogue with people who worked directlywith special children. Only three persons who were not directlyinvolved with special children were admitted, and even theusual stenographer was not invited (notes were taken by variousattendees). This was because individual children were to bebrought to the lectures to meet course participants: here weContinues on page 51.10 Evolving News for Members & Friends