It is a commonly held belief that, in 1936, Keynes' General Theory ushered in a new era in economic thought, with faith in the free market being replaced by reliance on systematic government intervention as a means of keeping the economy on an even keel. This book surveys the writings of a large number of economists in the interwar years and argues that the "Keynesian Revolution" is a myth, and that the "new economics" was a careful and selective synthesis of an "old economics" that had been developing for twenty years or more.

Examining the emergence, in the inter-war years, of what came to be called 'Keynesian macroeconomics'.

Adam Smith is the best known among economists for his book, The Wealth of Nations, often viewed as the keystone of modern economic thought. Others, often heterodox economists and social philosophers, on the contrary, focus on Smith s Theory of Moral Sentiments, and explore his moral theory. This work treats these dimensions of Smith s work as elements in a seamless moral philosophical vision, demonstrating the integrated nature of these works and Smith s other writings. Although many practitioners today see the study of Smith as an antiquarian exercise, this book weaves Smith into a...

The Victorian polymath William Stanley Jevons (1835 82) is generally and rightly venerated as one of the great innovators of economic theory and method in what came to be known as the 'marginalist revolution'. This book is an investigation into the cultural and intellectual resources that Jevons drew upon to revolutionize research methods in economics. Jevons's uniform approach to the sciences was based on a firm belief in the mechanical constitution of the universe and a firm conviction that all scientific knowledge was limited and therefore hypothetical in character. Jevons's mechanical...

Adam Smith is the best known among economists for his book, The Wealth of Nations, often viewed as the keystone of modern economic thought. Others, often heterodox economists and social philosophers, on the contrary, focus on Smith s Theory of Moral Sentiments, and explore his moral theory. This work treats these dimensions of Smith s work as elements in a seamless moral philosophical vision, demonstrating the integrated nature of these works and Smith s other writings. Although many practitioners today see the study of Smith as an antiquarian exercise, this book weaves Smith into a...

Over the twentieth century monetary theory played a crucial role in the evolution of the international monetary system. The severe shocks and monetary gyrations of the interwar years interacted with theoretical developments that superseded the rigid rules of commodity standards and led to the full-fledged conception of monetary policy. The definitive demise of the gold standard then paved the way for monetary reconstruction. Monetary theory was a decisive factor in the design of the reform proposals, in the Bretton Woods negotiations, and in forging the new monetary order. The Bretton Woods...

Harry Johnson (1923-1977) was such a striking figure in economics that Nobel Laureate James Tobin designated the third quarter of the twentieth century as the age of Johnson. Johnson played a leading role in the development and extension of the Heckscher-Ohlin model of international trade, wrote fundamental articles on the balance of payments and later developed the monetary approach to the balance of payments. Within monetary economics he was also a seminal figure who, in a series of surveys, identified and explained the links between the ideas of the major post-war innovators. This book...

Negishi examines a broad range of topics in the history of economics that have relevance to current economic theories. The author contends that one of the tasks for historians of economics is to analyze and interpret theories currently outside the mainstream of economic theory, in this case, Walrasian economics. Familiar topics covered include the division of labor, economies of scale, wages, profit, international trade, market mechanisms, and money. These are considered in reference to the well-known non-Walrasian schools of thought.

This book presents an account and technical assessment of Marx's economic analysis in Capital, with particular reference to the transformation and the surplus-value doctrine, the reproduction schemes, the falling real-wage and profit rates, and the trade cycle. The focus is on criticisms that Marx himself might have been expected to face in his day and age. In addition, it offers a chronological study of the evolution of that analysis from the early 1840s through three "drafts" documents of the late 1840s, the Grundrisse of 1857-1858, and the Economic Manuscripts of 1861-1863. It also...

In the first comprehensive and full-length study of the English historical economists, Gerard Koot traces their revolt against the theory, policy recommendations and academic dominance of classical and neoclassical economics in Britain between 1870 and 1926. English Historical Economics, 1870 1926 shows how these historical critics challenged the deductive method and mechanistic assumptions of the economic orthodoxy, developing an historical and inductive method for economic studies and laying the foundation for the professional study of economic history. The author examines the effect of...