The Longest Economics Textbook
The longest economics textbook ever written is a five-volume work in German by a Jesuit priest named Heinrich Pesch. It contains 3,969 pages as it appeared in its final edition. Published in several editions between 1905 and 1926 by the distinguished Herder publishing house in Freiburg, Germany, it is entitled Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, which translates literally as A Teaching Guide to Economics. Its author was born on September 17, 1854, virtually in the shadow of the great Gothic cathedral in Cologne, Germany. Pesch died in a residence for aging and infirm Jesuits located in Valkenburg, Holland, on April 1, 1926. His grave is unmarked. In 1945, when the Nazi SS troops evacuated the Jesuit property which they had seized and occupied early in World War II, they bulldozed all of the graves at the site.
One reason why the Lehrbuch is largely unknown in the English-speaking world is the fact that it was not translated into the English language until recently. The translation, entitled Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie/Teaching Guide to Economics, was done by the writer of this article after he retired from teaching in 1985. It was published in a 10-book format between 2002 and 2003 by the Edwin Mellen Press of Lewiston, New York (USA).
