In Transition

Dobb wrote with intimidating speed, but his books tended to come in waves. The first struck in the 1920s, with the publication of Capitalist Enterprise and Social Progress followed by Russian Economic Development since the Revolution three years later. Then his output slowed, picking up only in the aftermath of World War II, when Studies in the Development of Capitalism and Soviet Economic Development since 1917 appeared two years apart. His retirement witnessed a third outpouring of creative energy. The first book arrived in 1969, the second in 1973. Both started from a seemingly simple puzzle: “The crux of the matter,” Dobb claimed, was “whether the question of income-distribution can in practice be separated from questions of production and exchange.”1