The new edition of this classroom classic retains the organizing theme of the original text, presenting the development of thought within the context of economic history. Economic ideas are framed in terms of the spheres of production and circulation, with a critical analysis of how past theorists presented their ideas.

Joseph A. Schumpeter was one of the great economists of the twentieth century. His History of Economic Analsyis is perhaps the greatest contribution to the history of economics, providing a magisterial account of the development of the subject from Ancient Greece to the mid-twentieth century. Schumpeter's views on his predecessors have proved to be a constant source of controversy. Here individual chapters examine such disparate questions as Schumpeter's apparent disregard for the American Institutionalists, his grudging respect for Adam Smith, the perspicacity of his views of Quesnay and his preference for Walras over Pareto. Four chapters are devoted to the early Medieval schools, neglected in all of his writings. Schumpeter's magnum opus is related to the rest of his economic output, especially his views on money and on methodology. With contributions by leading historians of economics from six countries, this volume analyses Schumpeter's contribution to the history of economics, considers its lasting significance, and uses it as a benchmark to assess the current state of the field.

Study of the grand ideas in economics has a perpetual intellectual fascination in it’s own right. It can also have practical relevance, as the global economic downturn that began in 2007 reminds us. For several decades, the economics establishment had been dismissive of Keynesianism, arguing that the world had moved beyond the “depression economics” with which it dealt. Keynesian economics, however, has now staged a comeback as governments attempt to formulate policy responses to the Great Recession of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Many of the issues that faced economists in the past are still with us. The theories and methods of such men as Adam Smith, T. R. Malthus, David Ricardo, J.S. Mill, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, and J. M. Keynes are often relevant to us today—and we can always learn from their mistakes. In his stimulating analysis Professor Barber assesses the thought of a number of important economists both in terms of the issues of their day and in relation to modern economic thought. By concentrating on the greatest exponents he highlights the central properties of the four main schools of economic thought – classical, Marxian, neo-classical, and Keynesian – and shows that although each of these traditions is rooted in a different stage of economic development, they can all provide insights into the recurring problems of modern economics.

A systematic comparison of the 3 major economic theories—neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian—showing how they differ and why these differences matter in shaping economic theory and practice. Contending Economic Theories offers a unique comparative treatment of the three main theories in economics as it is taught today: neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian. Each is developed and discussed in its own chapter, yet also differentiated from and compared to the other two theories. The authors identify each theory's starting point, its goals and foci, and its internal logic. They connect their comparative theory analysis to the larger policy issues that divide the rival camps of theorists around such central issues as the role government should play in the economy and the class structure of production, stressing the different analytical, policy, and social decisions that flow from each theory's conceptualization of economics. Building on their earlier book Economics: Marxian versus Neoclassical, the authors offer an expanded treatment of Keynesian economics and a comprehensive introduction to Marxian economics, including its class analysis of society. Beyond providing a systematic explanation of the logic and structure of standard neoclassical theory, they analyze recent extensions and developments of that theory around such topics as market imperfections, information economics, new theories of equilibrium, and behavioral economics, considering whether these advances represent new paradigms or merely adjustments to the standard theory. They also explain why economic reasoning has varied among these three approaches throughout the twentieth century, and why this variation continues today—as neoclassical views give way to new Keynesian approaches in the wake of the economic collapse of 2008.

The Classical Tradition in Economic Thought demonstrates that classicism, in all its many faces, is not only alive but generating an ongoing flow of interpretative literature which will be of interest to students and scholars concerned with economic theory and the history of economic thought as well as the heterodox schools in modern economics.

Richard Cantillon, writing fifty years before Adam Smith, was the first to see the economy as an interrelated whole, and the first to give a coherent account of how it works. This is the first comprehensive study of his economic theory and of his place in the history of the subject.