The Pursuit of Reason The Economist, 1843-1993

Since its founding by James Wilson in 1843, The Economist has been the world’s most enduring and distinguished proponent of free markets and free trade. In celebration of this influential paper’s 150th anniversary, Ruth Dudley Edwards has written The Pursuit of Reason, an authoritative history over 10 years in the making. Now published for the first time in the United States, this edition features a new foreword by Bill Emmott, editor of The Economist since 1993. Edwards’s narrative is the product of hundreds of interviews and exhaustive research – a herculean effort exacerbated by the fact that most of the paper’s records had been destroyed in 1941 during the London Blitz. The Pursuit of Reason tells the stories of a distinguished group of men – and some women – who managed the paper and reported on the leading issues of their day. Of particular interest to those concerned with the future of the press is Edwards’s account of the steps taken in 1928 by Wilson’s descendants to preserve the independence of The Economist in a transfer of ownership, and of the endurance of this unusual trust arrangement over time as similar efforts throughout the newspaper industry have failed. The Pursuit of Reason is the story of a powerful newspaper, and of how quality journalism is made. It is also a chronicle of modern ideas and a sweeping history of the major international economic, business and political issues of the past 150 years.