Economic History
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Economic history is the academic learning of
economies An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of
historical method Historical method is the collection of techniques and guidelines that historians use to research and write histories of the past. Secondary sources, primary sources and material evidence such as that derived from archaeology may all be drawn ...
s,
statistical methods Statistics (from German: ''Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industria ...
and the application of economic theory to historical situations and institutions. The field can encompass a wide variety of topics, including equality, finance, technology, labour, and business. It emphasizes historicizing the economy itself, analyzing it as a dynamic force and attempting to provide insights into the way it is structured and conceived. Using both
quantitative data Quantitative research is a research strategy that focuses on quantifying the collection and analysis of data. It is formed from a deductive approach where emphasis is placed on the testing of theory, shaped by empiricist and positivist philoso ...
and qualitative sources, economic historians emphasize understanding the historical context in which major economic events take place. They often focus on the institutional dynamics of systems of
production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...
,
labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...
, and capital, as well as the economy's impact on society, culture, and language. Scholars of the discipline may approach their analysis from the perspective of different
schools of economic thought In the history of economic thought, a school of economic thought is a group of economic thinkers who share or shared a common perspective on the way economies work. While economists do not always fit into particular schools, particularly in modern ...
, such as mainstream economics, Marxian economics, the Chicago school of economics, and
Keynesian economics Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output a ...
. Economic history has several sub-disciplines. Historical methods are commonly applied in financial and business history, which overlap with areas of social history such as demographic and
labor history Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other fac ...
. In the sub-discipline called New Economic History or cliometrics, economists use
quantitative Quantitative may refer to: * Quantitative research, scientific investigation of quantitative properties * Quantitative analysis (disambiguation) * Quantitative verse, a metrical system in poetry * Statistics, also known as quantitative analysis ...
(
econometric Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...
) methods. In
history of capitalism The history of capitalism is diverse and the concept of capitalism has many debated roots. The history of the past 500 years is concerned with the development of capitalism in its various forms. Capital accumulated by a variety of methods, at a v ...
, historians explain economic historical issues and processes from a historical point of view.


Early history of the discipline

Arnold Toynbee made the case for combining economics and history in his pioneering study of the
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
. Toynbee declared, “I believe economics today is much too dissociated from history. Smith and Malthus had historical minds. However, Ricardo – who set the pattern of modern textbooks – had a mind that was entirely unhistorical.” There were several advantages in combining economics and history according to Toynbee. To begin with, it improved economic understanding. “We see abstract propositions in a new light when studying them in relation to historical facts. Propositions become more vivid and truthful.” Meanwhile, studying history with economics makes history easier to understand. Economics teaches us to look out for the right facts in reading history and makes matters such as introducing enclosures, machinery, or new currencies more intelligible. Economics also teaches careful deductive reasoning. “The habits of mind it instils are even more valuable than the knowledge of principles it gives. Without these habits, the mass of their materials can overwhelm students of historical facts.” In late-nineteenth-century Germany, scholars at a number of universities, led by
Gustav von Schmoller Gustav Friedrich (after 1908: von) Schmoller (; 24 June 1838 – 27 June 1917) was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics. He was a leading '' Sozialpolitiker'' (more derisively, '' Kathedersozialist'', "Socialist of t ...
, developed the historical school of economic history. It argued that there were no universal truths in history, emphasizing the importance of historical context without quantitative analysis. This historical approach dominated German and French scholarship for most of the 20th century. The historical school of economics included other economists such as Max Weber and
Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at H ...
who reasoned that careful analysis of human actions, cultural norms, historical context, and mathematical support was key to historical analysis. The approach was spread to Great Britain by William Ashley (
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
) and dominated British economic history for much of the 20th century. Britain's first professor in the subject was George Unwin at the
University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...
. Berg, Maxine L. (2004) 'Knowles , Lilian Charlotte Anne (1870–1926)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press
accessed 6 Feb 2015
/ref>Berg, M. (1992). The first women economic historians. ''The Economic History Review'', 45(2), 308–329. Meanwhile, in France, economic history was heavily influenced by the Annales School from the early 20th century to the present. It exerts a worldwide influence through its journal ''
Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales ''Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales'' is a French academic journal covering social history that was established in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre. The journal gave rise to an approach to history known as the ''Annales'' School. The journ ...
.'' Treating economic history as a discrete academic discipline has been a contentious issue for many years. Academics at the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
and the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
had numerous
disputes Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin ''controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an opposite d ...
over the separation of economics and economic history in the
interwar era In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...
. Cambridge economists believed that pure economics involved a component of economic history and that the two were inseparably entangled. Those at the LSE believed that economic history warranted its own courses, research agenda and academic chair separated from mainstream economics. In the initial period of the subject's development, the LSE position of separating economic history from economics won out. Many universities in the UK developed independent programmes in economic history rooted in the LSE model. Indeed, the
Economic History Society The Economic History Society (EHS) is a learned society that was established at the London School of Economics in 1926 to support the research and teaching of economic history in the United Kingdom and internationally. The society also acts as a ...
had its inauguration at
LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...
in 1926 and the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
eventually established its own economic history programme. In the United States, the field of economic history was largely subsumed into other fields of economics following the cliometric revolution of the 1960s. To many it became seen as a form of
applied economics Applied economics is the study as regards the application of economic theory and econometrics in specific settings. As one of the two sets of fields of economics (the other set being the ''core''), it is typically characterized by the application ...
rather than a stand-alone discipline.
Cliometrics Cliometrics (, also ), sometimes called new economic history or econometric history, is the systematic application of economic theory, econometric techniques, and other formal or mathematical methods to the study of history (especially social and e ...
, also known as the New Economic History, refers to the systematic use of economic theory and
econometric Econometrics is the application of statistical methods to economic data in order to give empirical content to economic relationships. M. Hashem Pesaran (1987). "Econometrics," '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, p. 8 p. 8 ...
techniques to the study of economic history. The term was originally coined by Jonathan R. T. Hughes and
Stanley Reiter Stanley Reiter (April 26, 1925 – August 9, 2014) was an American author, economist, and Emeritus Professor at Northwestern University. Reiter was a leading pioneer in the field of mechanism design. In 2006, he and the 2007 Nobel prize-winning ...
and refers to
Clio In Greek mythology, Clio ( , ; el, Κλειώ), also spelled Kleio, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre playing. Etymology Clio's name is etymologically derived from the Greek root κλέω/κλεί ...
, who was the
muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
of history and heroic poetry in
Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...
. One of the most famous cliometric economic historians is Douglass North, who argued that it is the task of economic history to elucidate the historical dimensions of economies through time. Cliometricians argue their approach is necessary because the application of theory is crucial in writing solid economic history, while historians generally oppose this view warning against the risk of generating anachronisms. Early cliometrics was a type of
counterfactual history Counterfactual history (also virtual history) is a form of historiography that attempts to answer the '' What if?'' questions that arise from counterfactual conditions. As a method of intellectual enquiry, counterfactual history explores histor ...
. However, counterfactualism was not its distinctive feature; it combines neoclassical economics with quantitative methods in order to explain human choices based on constraints. Some have argued that cliometrics had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s and that it is now neglected by economists and historians. In response to North and
Robert Fogel Robert William Fogel (; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen D ...
's Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1993,
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
economist
Claudia Goldin Claudia Goldin (born May 14, 1946) is an American economic historian and labor economist who is currently the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She is a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy Study Group and was th ...
argued that:
economic history is not a handmaiden of economics but a distinct field of scholarship. Economic history was a scholarly discipline long before it became cliometrics. Its practitioners were economists and historians studying the histories of economies... The new economic history, or cliometrics, formalized economic history in a manner similar to the injection of mathematical models and statistics into the rest of economics.
The relationship between economic history, economics and history has long been the subject of intense discussion, and the debates of recent years echo those of early contributors. There has long been a school of thought among economic historians that splits economic history—the study of how economic phenomena evolved in the past—from historical economics—testing the generality of economic theory using historical episodes. US economic historian Charles P. Kindleberger explained this position in his 1990 book ''Historical Economics: Art or Science?''. Economic historian
Robert Skidelsky Robert Jacob Alexander, Baron Skidelsky, (born 25 April 1939) is a British economic historian. He is the author of a three-volume award-winning biography of British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). Skidelsky read history at Jesus ...
(
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
) argued that
economic theory Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...
often employs ahistorical models and methodologies that do not take into account historical context.
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
economist Irving Fisher already wrote in 1933 on the relationship between economics and economic history in his " Debt-Deflation Theory of Great Depressions":
The study of dis-equilibrium may proceed in either of two ways. We may take as our unit for study an actual historical case of great dis-equilibrium, such as, say, the panic of 1873; or we may take as our unit for study any constituent tendency, such as, say, deflation, and discover its general laws, relations to, and combinations with, other tendencies. The former study revolves around events, or facts; the latter, around tendencies. The former is primarily economic history; the latter is primarily economic science. Both sorts of studies are proper and important. Each helps the other. The panic of 1873 can only be understood in light of the various tendencies involved—deflation and other; and deflation can only be understood in the light of various historical manifestations—1873 and other.


Scope and focus of economic history today

The past three decades have witnessed the widespread closure of separate economic history departments and programmes in the UK and the integration of the discipline into either history or economics departments. Only the
LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...
retains a separate economic history department and stand-alone undergraduate and graduate programme in economic history.
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
,
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
,
LSE LSE may refer to: Computing * LSE (programming language), a computer programming language * LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology * Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...
,
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, Queen's, and
Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...
together train the vast majority of economic historians coming through the British higher education system today, but do so as part of economics or history degrees. Meanwhile, there have never been specialist economic history graduate programs at universities anywhere in the US. However, economic history remains a special field component of leading economics PhD programs, including
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
,
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
,
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...
,
Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
, the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
and
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. Despite the pessimistic view on the state of the discipline espoused by many of its practitioners, economic history remains an active field of social scientific inquiry. Indeed, it has seen something of a resurgence in interest since 2000, perhaps driven by research conducted at universities in continental Europe rather than the UK and the US. The overall number of economic historians in the world is estimated at 10,400, with Japan and China as well as the U.K and the U.S. ranking highest in numbers. Some less developed countries, however, are not sufficiently integrated in the world economic history community, among others, Senegal, Brazil and Vietnam. Part of the growth in economic history is driven by the continued interest in big policy-relevant questions on the history of economic growth and development.
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
Peter Temin noted that development economics is intricately connected with economic history, as it explores the growth of economies with different technologies, innovations, and institutions. Studying economic growth has been popular for years among economists and historians who have sought to understand why some economies have grown faster than others. Some of the early texts in the field include
Walt Whitman Rostow Walt Whitman Rostow (October 7, 1916 – February 13, 2003) was an American economist, professor and political theorist who served as National Security Advisor to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1969. Rostow worked ...
's '' The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto'' (1971) which described how advanced economies grow after overcoming certain hurdles and advancing to the next stage in development. Another economic historian,
Alexander Gerschenkron Alexander Gerschenkron (russian: Александр Гершенкрон; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was a Russian-born American economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the Austrian School of economics. Born ...
, complicated this theory with works on how economies develop in non-Western countries, as discussed in ''Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective: A Book of Essays'' (1962). A more recent work is Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson's '' Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty'' (2012) which pioneered a new field of persistence studies, emphasizing the path-dependent stages of growth. Other notable books on the topic include
Kenneth Pomeranz Kenneth Pomeranz, FBA (born November 4, 1958) is University Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1980, where he was a Telluride Scholar, and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1988, ...
's '' The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy'' (2000) and
David S. Landes David Saul Landes (April 29, 1924 – August 17, 2013) was a professor of economics and of history at Harvard University. He is the author of ''Bankers and Pashas'', '' Revolution in Time'', '' The Unbound Prometheus'', '' The Wealth and Poverty ...
's '' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor'' (1998). In recent decades, and notably since the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, scholars have recently become more interested in a field which may be called ''new'' new economic history. Scholars have tended to move away from narrowly quantitative studies toward institutional,
social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...
, and
cultural history Cultural history combines the approaches of anthropology and history to examine popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. It examines the records and narrative descriptions of past matter, encompassing the ...
affecting the evolution of economies.For example:
   • Gregory Clark (2006), ''A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World''
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   • E. Aerts and H. Van der Wee, 2002. "Economic History," ''
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences The ''International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences'', originally edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, is a 26-volume work published by Elsevier. It has some 4,000 signed articles (commissioned by around 50 subject edit ...
'' pp. 4102–410
Abstract
The focus of these studies is frequently on "persistence", as past events are linked to present outcomes.
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...
Charles Calomiris Charles William Calomiris (born November 8, 1957) is an American financial policy expert, author, and professor at Columbia Business School, where he is the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions and the Director of Columbia Business Scho ...
argued that this new field showed 'how historical (path-dependent) processes governed changes in institutions and markets.' However, this trend has been criticized, most forcefully by Francesco Boldizzoni, as a form of economic imperialism "extending the neoclassical explanatory model to the realm of social relations." Conversely, economists in other specializations have started to write a new kind of economic history which makes use of historical data to understand the present day.For example:
Carmen M. Reinhart Carmen M. Reinhart (née Castellanos, born October 7, 1955) is a Cuban-American economist and the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, she was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fe ...
and
Kenneth S. Rogoff Kenneth Saul Rogoff (born March 22, 1953) is an American economist and chess Grandmaster. He is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Harvard University. Early life Rogoff grew up in Rochester, New York. ...
(2009), ''This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly''. Princeton
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links.
/ref> A major development in this genre was the publication of Thomas Piketty's ''
Capital in the Twenty-First Century ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century'' (french: Le Capital au XXIe siècle) is a book written by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was initially ...
'' (2013). The book described the rise in
wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an I ...
and
income inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
since the 18th century, arguing that large concentrations of wealth lead to social and economic instability. Piketty also advocated a system of global progressive wealth taxes to correct rising inequality. The book was selected as a ''New York Times'' best seller and received numerous awards. The book was well received by some of the world's major economists, including
Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was ...
,
Robert Solow Robert Merton Solow, GCIH (; born August 23, 1924) is an American economist whose work on the theory of economic growth culminated in the exogenous growth model named after him. He is currently Emeritus Institute Professor of Economics at the ...
, and Ben Bernanke. Books in response to Piketty's book include ''After Piketty: The Agenda for Economics and Inequality'', by Heather Boushey, J. Bradford DeLong, and Marshall Steinbaum (eds.) (2017), ''Pocket Piketty'' by Jesper Roine (2017), and ''Anti-Piketty: Capital for the 21st Century'', by Jean-Philippe Delsol, Nicolas Lecaussin, Emmanuel Martin (2017). One economist argued that Piketty's book was "Nobel-Prize worthy" and noted that it had changed the global discussion on how economic historians study inequality. It has also sparked new conversations in the disciplines of public policy. In addition to the mainstream in economic history, there is a parallel development in the field influenced by
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and Marxian economics. Marx used historical analysis to interpret the role of class and class as a central issue in history. He debated with the "classical" economists (a term he coined), including Adam Smith and
David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, and a ...
. In turn, Marx's legacy in economic history has been to critique the findings of neoclassical economists. Marxist analysis also confronts
economic determinism Economic determinism is a socioeconomic theory that economic relationships (such as being an owner or capitalist, or being a worker or proletarian) are the foundation upon which all other societal and political arrangements in society are based. ...
, the theory that economic relationships are the foundation of political and societal institutions. Marx abstracted the idea of a "capitalist mode of production" as a way of identifying the transition from
feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
to
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
. This has influenced some scholars, such as Maurice Dobb, to argue that feudalism declined because of peasants' struggles for freedom and the growing inefficiency of feudalism as a system of production. In turn, in what was later coined the Brenner debate,
Paul Sweezy Paul Marlor Sweezy (April 10, 1910 – February 27, 2004) was a Marxist economist, political activist, publisher, and founding editor of the long-running magazine ''Monthly Review''. He is best remembered for his contributions to economic theory ...
, a Marxian economist, challenged Dobb's definition of feudalism and its focus only on western Europe.''


History of capitalism

A new field calling itself the "history of capitalism" has emerged in US history departments since about the year 2000. It includes many topics traditionally associated with the field of economic history, such as insurance, banking and regulation, the political dimension of business, and the impact of capitalism on the middle classes, the poor and women and minorities. The field has particularly focused on the contribution of slavery to the rise of the US economy in the nineteenth century. The field utilizes the existing research of business history, but has sought to make it more relevant to the concerns of history departments in the United States, including by having limited or no discussion of individual business enterprises. Historians of capitalism have countered these critiques, citing the issues with economic history. As
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
professor of history Jonathan Levy states, "modern economic history began with industrialization and urbanization, and, even then, environmental considerations were subsidiary, if not nonexistent." Scholars have critiqued the history of capitalism because it does not focus on systems of production, circulation, and distribution. Some have criticized its lack of social scientific methods and its ideological biases. As a result, a new academic journal, ''Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics'', was founded at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of Marc Flandreau (University of Pennsylvania), Julia Ott (The New School, The New School, New York) and Francesca Trivellato (Institute for Advanced Study, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) to widen the scope of the field. The journal's goal is to bring together "historians and social scientists interested in the material and intellectual aspects of modern economic life."


Academic journals and societies

The first journal specializing in the field of economic history was ''The Economic History Review'', founded in 1927, as the main publication of the
Economic History Society The Economic History Society (EHS) is a learned society that was established at the London School of Economics in 1926 to support the research and teaching of economic history in the United Kingdom and internationally. The society also acts as a ...
. The first journal featured a publication by Professor Sir William Ashley, the first Professor of Economic History in the English-speaking world, who described the emerging field of economic history. The discipline existed alongside long-standing fields such as political history, religious history, and military history as one that focused on humans' interactions with 'visible happenings'. He continued, '[economic history] primarily and unless expressly extended, the history of actual human practice with respect to the material basis of life. The visible happenings with regard-to use the old formula-to "the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth" form our wide enough field'. Later, the Economic History Association established another academic journal, ''The Journal of Economic History'', in 1941 as a way of expanding the discipline in the United States. The first president of the Economic History Association, Edwin F. Gay, described the aim of economic history was to provide new perspectives in the economics and history disciplines: 'An adequate equipment with two skills, that of the historian and the economist, is not easily acquired, but experience shows that it is both necessary and possible'. Other related academic journals have broadened the lens with which economic history is studied. These interdisciplinary journals include the ''Business History Review'', ''European Review of Economic History'', ''Enterprise and Society'', and ''Financial History Review''. The ''International Economic History Association'', an association of close to 50 member organizations, recognizes some of the major academic organizations dedicated to study of economic history: the Business History Conference, Economic History Association,
Economic History Society The Economic History Society (EHS) is a learned society that was established at the London School of Economics in 1926 to support the research and teaching of economic history in the United Kingdom and internationally. The society also acts as a ...
, Eabh, European Association of Business Historians, and the International Social History Association.


Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economic historians

* Simon Kuznets won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences ("the Nobel Memorial Prize") in 1971 "for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and social structure and process of development". * John Hicks, whose early writing was on the field of economic history, won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1972 due to his contributions to general equilibrium theory and welfare theory. * W. Arthur Lewis, Arthur Lewis won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1979 for his contributions in the field of economic development through historical context. * Milton Friedman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1976 for "his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy". *
Robert Fogel Robert William Fogel (; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen D ...
and Douglass North won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1993 for "having renewed research in economic history by applying economic theory and quantitative methods in order to explain economic and institutional change". * Merton Miller, who started his academic career teaching economic history at the LSE, won the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1990 with Harry Markowitz and William F. Sharpe.


Notable works of economic history


Foundational works

* Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz, ''A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960'' (1963) * Friedrich Hayek, ''The Road to Serfdom'' (1944) *
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
, ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (1867) * Karl Polanyi, ''The Great Transformation (book), The Great Transformation: Origins of Our Time'' (1944) *
David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, and a ...
, ''On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation'' (1817) * Adam Smith, ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'' (1776)


General

* Robert C. Allen, ''Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction'' (2011) * Gregory Clark, ''A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World'' (2007) * Kevin O'Rourke and Ronald Findlay, ''Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium'' (2007) * Robert Heilbroner, ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers'' (1953) * Eric Roll, ''A History of Economic Thought'' (1923)


Ancient economies

* Moses Finley, ''The Ancient Economy'' (1973) * Walter Scheidel, ''The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century'' (2017) * Peter Temin, ''The Roman Market Economy'' (2012)


Economic growth and development

* Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, '' Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty'' (2012) *
Alexander Gerschenkron Alexander Gerschenkron (russian: Александр Гершенкрон; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was a Russian-born American economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the Austrian School of economics. Born ...
, ''Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective: A Book of Essays'' (1962) * Robert J. Gordon, ''The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War'' (2016) *
David S. Landes David Saul Landes (April 29, 1924 – August 17, 2013) was a professor of economics and of history at Harvard University. He is the author of ''Bankers and Pashas'', '' Revolution in Time'', '' The Unbound Prometheus'', '' The Wealth and Poverty ...
, '' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor'' (1998) * Joel Mokyr, ''The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress'' (1990) *
Kenneth Pomeranz Kenneth Pomeranz, FBA (born November 4, 1958) is University Professor of History at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from Cornell University in 1980, where he was a Telluride Scholar, and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1988, ...
, '' The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy'' (2000) *
Walt Whitman Rostow Walt Whitman Rostow (October 7, 1916 – February 13, 2003) was an American economist, professor and political theorist who served as National Security Advisor to President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson from 1966 to 1969. Rostow worked ...
, '' The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto'' (1971) * Jeffrey Sachs, ''The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time'' (2005) * Amartya Sen, ''Development as Freedom'' (1999) * William Easterly,
The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
' (2006) * Abhijit Banerjee, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, ''Poor Economics'' (2011)


History of money

* Christine Desan, ''Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism'' (2014) * William N. Goetzmann, ''Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible'' (2016) * David Graeber, ''Debt: The First 5000 Years'' (2011)


Business history

* David Cannadine, ''Mellon: An American Life'' (2006) * Alfred D. Chandler Jr., ''The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business'' (1977) * Ron Chernow, ''The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance'' (1990) * Ron Chernow, ''Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.'' (1998) * William D. Cohan, ''Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World'' * Naomi Lamoreaux, ''The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895–1904'' (1985) * David Nasaw, ''Andrew Carnegie'' (2006) * Jean Strouse, ''Morgan: American Financier'' (1999)


Financial history

* Liaquat Ahamed, ''Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World'' (2009) * Mark Blyth, ''Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea'' (2013) * Charles W. Calomiris and Stephen H. Haber, ''Fragile by Design: The Political Origins of Banking Crises and Scarce Credit'' (2014) * Barry Eichengreen, ''Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System'' (2010) * Barry Eichengreen, ''Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System'' (1996) * Niall Ferguson, ''The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World'' (2008) * Harold James (historian), Harold James, ''International Monetary Cooperation Since Bretton Woods'' (1996) *
Carmen M. Reinhart Carmen M. Reinhart (née Castellanos, born October 7, 1955) is a Cuban-American economist and the Minos A. Zombanakis Professor of the International Financial System at Harvard Kennedy School. Previously, she was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fe ...
and
Kenneth S. Rogoff Kenneth Saul Rogoff (born March 22, 1953) is an American economist and chess Grandmaster. He is the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics at Harvard University. Early life Rogoff grew up in Rochester, New York. ...
, ''This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly'' (2009) * Benn Steil, ''The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order'' (2013) * Adam Tooze, ''The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy'' (2006)


Globalization and inequality

* Sven Beckert, ''Empire of Cotton: A Global History'' (2014) * William J. Bernstein, ''A Splendid Exchange, A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World from Prehistory to Today'' (2008) * Niall Ferguson, ''The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000'' (2001) *
Robert Fogel Robert William Fogel (; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen D ...
and Stanley L. Engerman, ''Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery'' (1974) *
Claudia Goldin Claudia Goldin (born May 14, 1946) is an American economic historian and labor economist who is currently the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She is a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy Study Group and was th ...
, ''Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women'' (1990) * Harold James (historian), Harold James, ''The End of Globalization: Lessons from the Great Depression'' (2009) * Thomas Piketty, ''
Capital in the Twenty-First Century ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century'' (french: Le Capital au XXIe siècle) is a book written by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was initially ...
'' (2013) * Thomas Piketty, ''The Economics of Inequality'' (2015) * Thomas Piketty, ''Capital and Ideology'' (2020) * Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, ''The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay'' (2019) * Jeffrey G. Williamson and Kevin O'Rourke, ''Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-century Atlantic Economy'' (1999) * Gabriel Zucman, ''The Hidden Wealth of Nations: The Scourge of Tax Havens'' (2015)


Notable economic historians

* Moses Abramovitz * Jeremy Adelman * Robert C. Allen, Robert Allen * T. S. Ashton * Correlli Barnett * Jörg Baten * Maxine Berg * Jean-François Bergier * Ben Bernanke * Francesco Boldizzoni * Leah Boustan * Fernand Braudel * Rondo Cameron * Sydney Checkland * Carlo M. Cipolla * John Clapham (economic historian), John Clapham * Gregory Clark * Thomas C. Cochran (historian), Thomas C. Cochran * Nicholas Crafts * Louis Cullen * Peter Davies (economic historian) * Brad DeLong * Melissa Dell * Barry Eichengreen * Friedrich Engels * Stanley Engerman
Giovanni Federico
* Charles Feinstein * Niall Ferguson * Ronald Findlay * Moses Israel Finley * Irving Fisher * Brian Fitzpatrick (Australian author), Brian Fitzpatrick * Roderick Floud *
Robert Fogel Robert William Fogel (; July 1, 1926 – June 11, 2013) was an American economic historian and scientist, and winner (with Douglass North) of the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. As of his death, he was the Charles R. Walgreen D ...
* Milton Friedman * Celso Furtado *
Alexander Gerschenkron Alexander Gerschenkron (russian: Александр Гершенкрон; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was a Russian-born American economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the Austrian School of economics. Born ...
*
Claudia Goldin Claudia Goldin (born May 14, 1946) is an American economic historian and labor economist who is currently the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She is a co-director of the NBER's Gender in the Economy Study Group and was th ...
* Jack Goldstone * John Habakkuk * Earl J. Hamilton * Eli Heckscher * Eric Hobsbawm * Susan Howson (economist), Susan Howson * Leo Huberman * Jane Humphries * Harold James (historian), Harold James * Geoffrey Jones (academic), Geoffrey Jones * Ibn Khaldun * Charles P. Kindleberger * John Komlos * Nikolai Kondratiev * Simon Kuznets * Kwasi Kwarteng * Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie * Naomi Lamoreaux * David Landes * Tim Leunig * Friedrich List * Roberto Sabatino Lopez, Robert Sabatino Lopez * Angus Maddison *
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
* Peter Mathias * Ellen McArthur * Deirdre McCloskey * Jacob Metzer, Jacob (Kobi) Metzer * Joel Mokyr * Douglass North * Nathan Nunn * Avner Offer * Cormac Ó Gráda * Patrick K. O'Brien * Thomas Piketty * Henri Pirenne * Karl Polanyi * Erik S. Reinert * Christina Romer * Walt Whitman Rostow, W. W. Rostow * Murray Rothbard * Tirthankar Roy *
Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at H ...
* Anna Jacobson Schwartz * Larry Schweikart * Ram Sharan Sharma * Robert Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky, Robert Skidelsky * Adam Smith * Graeme Snooks * Richard H. Steckel * R. H. Tawney * Peter Temin * Adam Tooze * Francesca Trivellato * Eberhard Wächtler * Jeffrey Williamson * Tony Wrigley * Jan Luiten van Zanden *Harold Innis *John Kenneth Galbraith *Donald Creighton *Naomi Klein *Linda McQuaig


See also

* Capitalism *
Cliometrics Cliometrics (, also ), sometimes called new economic history or econometric history, is the systematic application of economic theory, econometric techniques, and other formal or mathematical methods to the study of history (especially social and e ...
* Critical juncture theory * Economic History Association *
Economic History Society The Economic History Society (EHS) is a learned society that was established at the London School of Economics in 1926 to support the research and teaching of economic history in the United Kingdom and internationally. The society also acts as a ...
* History of economic thought * Business history * History of capitalism * History of industrialisation


Notes


References


Further reading

* * *
Blum, Matthias, Colvin, Christopher L. (Eds.). 2018. ''An Economist's Guide to Economic History''. Palgrave.
* Gerold Blümle: ''Wirtschaftsgeschichte und ökonomisches Denken. Ausgewählte Aufsätze.'' Metropolis, Marburg, 2007, . * * * * * Kadish, Alon. ''Historians, Economists, and Economic History'' (2012) pp. 3–3
excerpt
* * * * * * * *Kevin O'Rourke, O'Rourke, K. (2019)
Economic History and Contemporary Challenges to Globalization
The Journal of Economic History, 79(2), 356–382. *Robert Solow, Solow, Robert M. "Economic History and Economics." The American Economic Review 75, no. 2 (1985): 328–31. www.jstor.org/stable/1805620. * KT Rammohan. 2011. 'Pathways to India's Economic Past'. in D Narayana and Raman Mahadevan (eds). 'Shaping India: Economic Change in Historical Perspective'. London, New York and New Delhi: Routledge. pp. 323–347. {{Authority control Economic history, Economic history studies, Schools of economic thought History of economic thought Academic disciplines