181R. E. H. Phelps Brown to Harrod, 5 November 1930 [a]
181R. E. H. Phelps Brown to Harrod, 5 November 1930 [a]
The exchange continues at 199 R. Brown describes his experience in America, [1] and compares economics there and in Oxford as a kind of botany as opposed to a kind of philosophy, one using the collecting-case and the other using the armchair. He complains that in Oxford no one is collecting, and expresses the belief that "it should be the function of an Oxford school of economics to find out facts as well as to argue from premisses." He is grateful for Harrod's suggestion (formulated in a letter no longer extant) that he should work on some piece of research in order to get understanding and practical training at the same time. Finally, at Harrod's request, Brown describes the working of the library in Ann Arbour, and wishes that Harrod will fight a tenacious "battle for an imaginative and expensive new library in Oxford". [2]
2. Harrod was a member of the Commission entrusted with formulating a plan for the development of the Bodleian Library in Oxford: see note 4 to letter 172 R.