Tyler CowenEconomist, Author, and Professor at George Mason University

Persistence pays off! Tyler's book was rejected by Harvard... twice

20 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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In this interview segment, economist Tyler Cowen recounts the arduous path his book took from conception to publication. He explains that the manuscript, begun around 1991, faced multiple rejections: Harvard University Press initially turned it down before eventually publishing it, and the University of Michigan Press, after initially accepting it, vetoed publication when its editorial board expressed strong dislike. Cowen turned to his former advisor and friend, Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling, who intervened by contacting Harvard, ultimately facilitating the book’s release in 1998. Cowen notes that the writing process itself took three to four years, and the overall timeline to publication was similarly lengthy. He also describes persistent hostility toward the book’s central argument that capitalism is aesthetically unappealing, a critique that challenged lingering anti‑capitalist sentiments even after the fall of communism.

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But it took me a long time to get the book written and then published. It had a very tough publishing history.
Oh.
It was turned down many times.
Oh, wow.
And Harvard University Press, they published it, but at first they turned it down.
Wow, I mean, that's surprising because it was reviewed everywhere. It kind of put your name on the map.
And there was another episode. I submitted it to University of Michigan Press, and they decided they would take it. It had positive reviews, and then their editorial board read the book and just decided they hated it. Wow. And they vetoed Michigan doing the book. Wow. And then I went to my former advisor and by then friend Thomas Schelling. I was like, Tom, what can I do? Tom said, well, let me write Harvard University Press. I said, oh, they already turned it down. And Tom says, well, let me write Harvard University Press. And that led to a path of events where maybe I started this book in '91, I would guess. And it was published, what, '98 you said?
Yeah.
That's a long time, and it took me 3 or 4 years to write the book, but equally long to get it out.
Well, Schelling point, right? Exactly.
But there has always been a lot of hostility toward this book. Yeah. Because the notion that capitalism is ugly and violates the aesthetic is one of the criticisms that it was felt still held up, you know, even after communism fell. So it was knocking out one of the last pillars. Exactly. Of what Mises called the anti-capitalist mentality. Yeah, yeah.