But Marglin feels the best aspect of the debate was that "a lot of people were exposed for the first time to the idea that there were alternative ways of looking at American capitalism that are worthy of consideration.

That's not something that the standard education in economics around here would lead them to believe," he says. "A lot of people came up to me and said this is what we should have as part of our education. That notion was common around here five or six years ago, but along with the radicals' departure, it disappeared. That's as good a thing as I think one can hope for. The fact that 700 people came to an extracurricular activity seems to say a lot about what's missing from the undergraduate curriculum."

Unfortunately, Marglin believes that alternative approaches to economics will remain scarce at Harvard. The tiny liberal caucus in the Economics Department, which sided with him in many of the battles over his departed fellow-radicals, is dwindling, Galbraith will be making movies for BBC next year, and Leontief, disgusted with the department, has announced his intentions to "vote with my feet" and is leaving for New York University. Albert O. Hirschman went to Princeton last year. Only Kenneth Arrow remains. With these resignations, Harvard has lost much of the variety in its economic thought.

"I feel the future of this department is quite grim," Marglin says. "It's dominated by people roughly my age, a little older, who are very energetic, very prestigious, and very good at what they do. But they're doing the wrong thing. Well, let's say there's a lot more in economics than what they're doing which should be represented here, and isn't going to be represented here as long as these people are in the saddle."

For the time being, Marglin doesn't plan to move on to more accommodating campuses. He has his economics, which he has always enjoyed most when working alone, and his wife and three children are well-rooted here. "I'm not afraid of isolation," he says.

Marglin asserts that the success of alternative approaches depends not on faculty votes at Harvard, but on the political awareness throughout the nation. "We draw our strength from the movement for radical change in this country, for turning this country around, for giving people control over their lives," he says, pointing out that he and the other radical economists all came to Harvard as "straights." "We will succeed and be respectable only insofar as that movement succeeds."

"Now that's not the movement Derek Bok represents," he continues. "That's not the movement Henry Rosovsky represent. That's not the movement the Board of Overseers and the Harvard Corporation represent. They're the other side in my judgement, probably in theirs, too."

Marglin looks for a resurgence of radical consciousness that will bring radical economics to Harvard despite the votes of the faculty, and expects that it will be met with hostility again. "There will be a next time around, and there will be growth," he says. "But it won't be respectable to the mainstream because it's a threat. It's a threat to their power, to their prestige, to their incomes, every way you cut it."

So Marglin, whose circle of friends waned with the student movement, will patiently wait for it to wax again. Until then, he will remain Harvard's only tenured radical economist--a mistake the faculty made when their guard was down, but the best evidence that alternative approaches cannot be easily silenced.