Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.

VON NEUMANN, John and Oscar Morgernstern.

Item Number: 12018

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1947.

Second edition of the author’s groundbreaking work on game theory. Octavo, original cloth. Light red pencil marginalia in the text, very good.

“One of the major scientific contributions of the first half of the 20th century” (Goldstine & Wigner). “Had it merely called to our attention the existence and exact nature of certain fundamental gaps in economic theory, the Theory of Games and Economic Behavior… would have been a book of outstanding importance. But it does more than that. It is essentially constructive: where existing theory is considered to be inadequate, the authors put in its place a highly novel analytical apparatus designed to cope with the problem. It would be doing the authors an injustice to say that theirs is a contribution to economics only. The scope of the book is much broader. The techniques applied by the authors in tackling economic problems are of sufficient generality to be valid in political science, sociology, or even military strategy. The applicability to games proper (chess and poker) is obvious from the title. Moreover, the book is of considerable interest from a purely mathematical point of view… The appearance of a book of the caliber of the Theory of Games is indeed a rare event” (World of Mathematics II:1267-84).