Theory of Games and Economic Behavior by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Princeton University Press, $50/拢32.95, ISBN 0691119937 Reviewed by Mike Holderness
THE theory of games 鈥渋s more avant-garde than Sartre, more subtle than a Jesuit, and as honest as one can safely be,鈥� John McDonald wrote in Fortune magazine in 1949, five years after mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern published their Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Now we have this handsome 60th anniversary edition, with supporting essays and reviews.
Opinions still vary on the success of the project to put economics on a sound mathematical footing, but game theory was eventually hugely influential, especially on mathematics and the study of automata. Every self-respecting library must have one.
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