“ONE OF THE MAJOR SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY”: VON NEUMANN’S THEORY OF GAMES, FIRST EDITION,IN SCARCE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET
NEUMANN, John von and MORGENSTERN, Oskar. Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1944. Octavo, original brown cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box.
First edition of the groundbreaking treatise on game theory, highly influential in business, economics and the social sciences, in scarce original dust jacket.
“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). Scarce corrigenda slip laid in. Owner signature.
Book with tape residue to marginal edge of corrigenda slip and front endpapers, dust jacket with only slight rubbing to edges. A very nearly fine copy, quite scarce in original dust jacket.