Pre-1950s US finance education centered on institutions and legal structure, not markets or mathematics.

Evidence

In the 1950s, finance was a well-established part of the curriculum in the business schools of U.S. universities. A typical course would cover matters such as “institutional arrangements, legal structures, and long-term financing of companies and investment projects” (Whitley 1986a, pp. 154-155). What Weston (1966, p. 4) calls “the chief textbook of finance” had for several decades been The Financial Policy of Corporations by Arthur Stone Dewing, a professor of finance at Harvard University. The text had first appeared in 1919, and by 1953 its 1,500 pages required two separate volumes. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 158

Categorization

• XREF: Establishes the baseline against which the performativity thesis-adjacent revolution in finance theory (the shift to mathematical, market-based models) is measured. — connects to: Finance progressed where it studied markets rather than firms’ internal workings — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 327

Broader Connections

• Finance progressed where it studied markets rather than firms’ internal workings #expands (0.75) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 327