Economic History category: 3271 books

Unequal Gains offers a radically new understanding of the economic evolution of the United States, providing a complete picture of the uneven progress of America from colonial times to today. While other economic historians base their accounts on American wealth, Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson...

Invented in post-industrial 19th century Europe, the idea of capitalism originally sought to describe and explain the distinctive characteristics of an emerging modern world. Since then, capitalism has served to identify an economic system, a particular social structure, and a set of cultural values...

The practice of charging interest on loans has been controversial since it was first mentioned in early recorded history. Lending is a powerful economic tool, vital to the development of society but it can also lead to disaster if left unregulated. Prohibitions against excessive interest, or usury,...

First published in English 1929, this is a reissue of the nineteenth edition of Othmar Spann's classic history of economic thought, which is strongly influenced by the German Romantic tradition. Spann intended the work to serve as both history of economic thought and a critique of the main...

Austerity is at the center of political debates today. Its defenders praise it as a panacea that will prepare the ground for future growth and stability. Critics insist it will precipitate a vicious cycle of economic decline, possibly leading to political collapse. But the notion that abstinence from...

This collection of essays provides a comprehensive view of the economic thought of the Scottish Enlightenment. Organized as a chronological account of the rise and progress of political economy in eighteenth century Scotland, each chapter discusses the way in which the moral and economic improvement...

This book, the last work of the great German sociologist and historian Max Weber (1864–1920), is based on a series of lectures he delivered in 1919–20. The present volume brings together major ideas that explain economic life and change. Beginning with descriptions and analyses of the early agrarian...

Ever since the inception of economics over two hundred years ago, the tools at the discipline’s disposal have grown more and more more sophisticated. This book provides a historical introduction to the methodology of economics through the eyes of economists. The story begins with John Stuart...

Harry S Truman is best remembered as the President who witnessed the swift arrival of the Cold War in the tumultuous years after World War Two. Little however has been written to show that he was also the populist President who set the political economic course for the United States to win it merely...

This book establishes a chronological trace of the entrepreneur as treated in economic literature in order to give a more wholesome perspective to contemporary writings and teachings on entrepreneurship. It focuses on the nature and role of the entrepreneur, and of entrepreneurship, as revealed in...

The Research in the History of Economic Methodology (RHETM) 33, the first under the new editorial team, includes original research from preeminent scholars in the field. Topics range from "What to tell a Graduate Course in Macroeconomics about Keynes" (by Keynes scholar Robert W. Dimand),...

This book analyses the contribution of Eugen (Jenő) Varga (1879-1964) on Marxist-Leninist economic theory as well as the influence he exercised on Stalin’s foreign policy and through the Comintern on the international communist movement. During the Hungarian Councils’ Republic of 1919 Varga was...

The so-called miraculous economic development in the southern half of the Korean peninsula has transformed from basically an agrarian economy to that of a major industrial power in a very short time period, and it is now considered one of a dozen or so of industrialized countries in the world. However,...

The 'German Question' dominated much of modern European history. In 1945, Germany was defeated and conquered. Yet, the Second World War did not destroy the foundations of her economic power. Dr Tamás Vonyó revisits Germany's remarkable post-war revival, tracing its roots not to liberal economic...