History of Economic Analysis

by Joseph A. Schumpeter, Mark Perlman (Introduction), Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter (Editor)

At the time of his death in 1950, Joseph Schumpeter--one of the great economists of the first half of the 20th century--was working on his monumental History of Economic Analysis. A complete history of efforts to understand the subject of economics from ancient Greece to the present, this book is an important contribution to the history of ideas as well as to economics. Although never fully completed, it has gained recognition as a modern classic due to its broad scope and original examination of significant historical events. Complete with a new introduction by Mark Perlman, who outlines the structure of the book and puts Schumpeters work into current perspective, History of Economic Analysis remains a reflection of Schumpeters diverse interests in history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Major topics include the techniques of economic analysis, contemporaneous developments in other sciences, and the sociology of economics; economic writings from Plato and Aristotle up
through the time of Adam Smith, including the medieval scholastics and natural-law philosophers; the work of Malthus, Mill, Ricardo, Marx, and the important European economists; the history, sociology, psychology, and economics of the period 1879-1914; and modern economic developments. Schumpeter perceived economics as a human science, and this lucid and insightful volume reflects that perception, creating a work that is of major importance to the history of economics.

Genres: Economics, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Business, Finance, Politics

1320 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1954

About the author

People know Moravian-born Joseph Alois Schumpeter, an American, for his theories of socioeconomic evolution and the development of capitalism.

This political scientist briefly served as finance minister of Austria in 1919. Of the 20th century, the most influential Schumpeter popularized the term "creative destruction."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_...

Reviews

[Michele Boldrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading it again to teach a class. Masterpiece, anyone interested in Economic Analysis should at least try to go through this.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

A work of astounding scope and intellectual force. I have never encountered any other treatment of the subject so thorough, even-handed, and willing to cooly puncture the genre's favorite myths. In its broad-ranging discursions we get a sense of a brilliant mind and generous spirit, toiling in vain to make a full accounting, to make every relevant connection apparent, to give credit where it is due and gently point out where it has been granted mistakenly.

This is not, however, a book for beginners. It supposes a high degree of familiarity with the subject, its principal players, and its essential concepts. Far from being an accessible point of introduction, it can at times be exhaustively demanding, although the reader is also rewarded periodically with displays of the author's wit and ability to turn a phrase.

A stupendous achievement, in short, that ought to be on the shelves of every library.

[Kevin Carson · Rating 5 out of 5]

About halfway through now, and it's been one of the most productive readings of my life.
So far he's used two classifications of economic theory that identify vitally important unexamined assumptions behind most orthodox capitalist economics, that most mainstream economists don't even recognize as issues:
1) Money theories of credit, vs. credit theories of money, and
2) Advance economics (the idea that the capitalist "advances" a "labor fund" or stockpile of subsistence goods to workers) vs. synchronization economics (the idea the capitalist only coordinates flows of ongoing production between producers)
But in some ways, Schumpeter is as much a product of his own unexamined assumptions as any of the historical figures he analyzes.
For example, he judges Ricardo for not recognizing the "explanatory principle" of treating the distribution of the social product between workers, capitalists, and landlords as a matter of "valuation."
But in the end the “explanatory principle” of treating distribution as a problem of valuation is little more than a tautology.
Owing to a set of unexamined institutional considerations, like property rules, a set of various “agents” is in the unexamined position of “providing” (i.e. controlling access to) the “productive services” of various “factors” (i.e. whatever they’re able to charge for not obstructing the use of productive goods to which they have a socially constructed right to control access will amount, ipso facto, to the additional amount their rent extraction adds to the price of the finished good).
Schumpeter’s “explanatory principle” of valuation is entirely secondary to a more fundamental institutional definition of rights of control to access; the “value created” by the “productive services” of “factors” — and the resulting revenue accruing to the “owners” of those factors — will vary according to the socially constructed rules of ownership and control.
This is an economics which is logically elegant, in mathematical terms, but deliberately renders itself useless to the analysis of the most fundamental issues of social structure, power, and control within any given economic system. The latter are not only all questions that the old institutionalists -- Veblen, Commons, et al -- addressed in ways that Schumpeter almost completely ignores, but they're questions that MUST be addressed before "marginal productivity" as a principle governing distribution is even worth looking at.

[Dr. Carl Ludwig Dorsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A breathtakingly formidable masterpiece of maximalist (or is it encyclopedic maximalism – or even encyclopedic “hysterical realism” as some critics of the genre have it?) postmodern literature.

Complete with a full apparatus of the “found manuscript” (“The material was found in many places…in boxes…on shelves,” scraps of “yellow paper” etc.), an editor who (as a further editor informs us) dies while finalizing the book’s index, an Editor’s Introduction, Editor’s Appendix, a hundred pages of further notes, etc., this is a preposterously outsized epic (at 1200 pages) of, in the author’s formulation, “the ways of the human mind.”

Spanning the entire history of western thought, the “History” hangs (more or less) on a single narrator, a certain “Joseph Alois Schumpeter” – an elegant Moravian-born, but now aging Austrian bon vivant and professor of economics (though once both a Finance Minister and failed bank president) – a man of apparently exhaustive knowledge and a seemingly limitless fondness for the discursive tale, and who, though alternately surprisingly cranky and surprisingly earnest, always remains consistently and completely charming and very often very, very funny.

Around him (and at times seemingly through him) tumbles an enormous cast, a swarm of hundreds of diverse actors, some of whom circle again and again through the course of the narrative, others appearing only for a moment – but always fully realized, if only, literally, as footnotes.

The panorama is astounding – landscapes grand as the Alps, niches almost microbial: world historical characters stride through the councils of kings, congresses and parliaments, the fascinating and forgotten scurry invisibly through history’s dense underbrush, generation succeeds generation like day follows night. An entire planet orbits this Mr. Schumpeter, and it is one very much like our own.

And when (if) one eventually comes to that last line and it is time to finally settle the account, consider again the offer our narrator set before us as we entered into this long bargain: that we might here “learn about both the futility and fertility of controversies; about detours, wasted efforts and blind alleys; about spells of arrested growth, about our dependence on chance, about how not to do things, about leeways to make up for,” and to “learn to understand why we are as far as we actually are and also why we are not further…” I can hardly imagine anyone arguing that the transaction was not accomplished. The cost may have been high, in both the author's labors and our own, but (in this customer’s view at least) the price was more than fair.

In the end ( “The manuscript breaks off at this point; there are brief notes, partly in shorthand…”) we have indeed, as promised in the ‘Introduction and Plan,’ “glean[ed] lessons…that are useful, even though sometimes discouraging.” And been immersed in the deluge of “the ways of the human mind.”

[Alex Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was told this was a "Big, fat, Whiggish history of economics". Uncertain what this meant, I was undeterred by it.

What they were getting at was how Schumpeter approached economics --- e.g., David Ricardo really wasn't trying to figure out certain problems, approaching it based on the thinkers preceding him. No! He unknowingly was working on the modern marginalist approach without ever having realized it.

This does Schumpeter a bit of a disservice. It's a bit more complicated than that, but there's an element of truth in it.

Schumpeter's introduction is rather interesting, albeit confusing, with his discussion of ideology (which is a loaded term in English...I suspect it's an artifact from translation). For Schumpeter, it enters on the ground-floor, and shapes what problems one looks at.

It's rather convoluted (in the mathematical sense).

There's far too much time spent on Ancient and Medieval thinkers, which is interesting for the sake of completeness...I guess...but I skimmed these sections and jumped ahead to the physiocrats. I think one can safely do this without much loss.

[Richard Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read sections of this massive and grand book in graduate school and have dabbled since. With decades old notes in hand, I have completed the journey.

[Craig Bolton]

History of Economic Analysis: With a New Introduction by Joseph A. Schumpeter (1996)

[Gordof Mon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creí que nunca me lo terminaría...
Quiero mencionar varios puntos que considero importantes para nosotros los simples mortales (lectores casuales).

(1) Leerlo no es difícil, el estilo de redacción ayuda mucho. (2) Es un libro muy completo, prácticamente te puedes encontrar cualquier cosa de economía que busques explicado aquí, lo puedes utilizar como tu diccionario de teorías económicas de confianza. (3) Considero que no es un libro para cualquier mortal, sino que, es un libro para los especialistas que necesiten hurgar en la historia con minucioso detalle.

No es difícil, es tedioso, te explica todo exageradamente detallado, te menciona las formas de las motas de polvo que se formaron cuando Ricardo se sentaba en su escritorio a escribir, cómo se inspiraba con ellas y cómo se pueden conectar esas motas de polvo a la Filosofía, Sociología y obviamente, al Análisis económico (es sarcasmo).

- 3.25/5⭐
- 50:05⌛

[Marco Sán Sán]

Enorme esfuerzo de Schumpeter para mostrar a detalle el hilo económico. Desenredando paso a paso los nudos de esta joven ciencia. La elegante forma de jugar con Keynes, es de aplaudir. Schumpeter como los grandes genios, estructuran a largo, medio y corto plazo, dejando, como se debe el hilo a uso de todos.

[Bryan Cobo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desde que me lo he leído se ha convertido en uno de mis libros de referencia. Está todo muy bien explicado, no solo las herramientas analíticas de los distintos autores sino la relación entre estas y su contexto histórico y los precedentes de las mismas. Un libro muy completo y muy útil.

[Lea Avi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, crass, opinionated, sometimes even downright funny - and, of course, frustratingly unfinished. I don't think there's any book on economics out there quite like this. This tome is a must-read if you have a passion for economics or the history of economic thought.

[Nathan Goldschlag · Rating 2 out of 5]

Driest thing I have ever read.

[Dante Noguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obra maestra de erudición y prudencia. Schumpeter es tan genial que, entre las miles de páginas y autores oscuros que llenan este libro titánico, se limitó a mencionar su trabajo apenas unas cuantas veces en las notas de página.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting perspective on the History of economics

[Bambam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who can help me or knows of a place where i can obtain a copy of this book ?

[Felixmarte_de_Hircania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué se puede decir de semejante y monumental obra maestra? Que es mucho más que solo "historia del análisis económico". Es historia de la psicología, la sociología, historia de la propia historia, de la metodología de las ciencias sociales...así como la descripción de la vida y personalidad de multitud de teóricos y eruditos. Y todo ello con el encanto, la ironía y la erudición que desprende la letra de Schumpeter.

Probablemente uno de los mejores libros de ciencias sociales que se hayan escrito nunca.

[Miriam Dörflinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

very good to read but so long :D

[Albert Medina]

"mis dieses"