ABSTRACT
On the whole, this is an excellent book. To be sure, part of the economic analysis depends quite heavily on some of Professor Schumpeter's favorite doctrines, such as the innovation theory of interest, the theory of the beneficence of largescale and quasimonopolistic business under modern capitalism, and the theory of the decline of the entrepreneurial function; but this is not unexpected. The book may be somewhat difficult for the general reader, but individuals with adequate background in the general field will find that it is charmingly written, that its arguments and analyses are developed in thorough and intensely interesting fashion, and that Professor Schumpeter's outstanding scholarship is evidenced on every page. The literature in this important field has been enriched
"Schumpeter as a Teacher and Economic Theorist," Paul A. Samuelson (1951)*
There were many Schumpeters: the brilliant enfant terrible of the Austrian School who before the age of thirty had written two great books; the young Cairo lawyer with a stable of horses; the Austrian Finance-Minister; the social philosopher and prophet of capitalist development; the historian of economic doctrine; the economic theorist espousing use of more exact methods and tools of reasoning; the teacher of economics.
