Towards an economics of natural equals. A documentary history of the early Virginia School: by David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2020, 308 p., £85, ISBN 978-1-108-42897-2.

It allows Levy and Peart to stress that VPE rests on philosophical and ethical foundations-natural equality-, on a defense of democracy-as a government by discussion-and, as a consequence, on a specific definition of economics. Circumscribing the role of economists to the analysis and choice of rules is important because it allows them to avoid the trap of normativity when they make policy recommendations which was important for the economists who founded VPE. As Levy and Peart explain, Virginia political economists defined their discipline as having to focus on the process towards equilibrium and on rules and institutions. [Extracted from the article]