All I Really Need to Know About Antitrust I Learned in 1912

Herbert Hovenkamp has indisputably earned the deanship of contemporary antitrust scholarship. One could point to many different attributes by which he has earned his laurels: fantastic scholarly productivity; clarity and precision in the craft of writing; analytical depth in both law and economics; moderation in a field apt to polarization; and custodianship of the influential Areeda treatise. In this Essay, I hope to honor another quality that has contributed significantly to Herb’s tremendous success as an antitrust scholar—his engagement with history. Much contemporary antitrust scholarship bursts with excitement at the discovery of new phenomena or theories that in all actuality have long shelf lives in earlier epochs in the antitrust cycle. Though antitrust scholars often speak as though economic analysis began with the structuralist school of the 1950s, Herb has frequently reminded everyone that antitrust proponents and opponents have never faced a shortage of economic theories. Through his insights as a legal historian, Herb has helped make the antitrust community aware of the resonances of current debates with the debates and resolutions of earlier generations