ABSTRACT
The complaint that contemporary economic theory is bereft of historical and empirical forces has been a common one recently. Given the perennial drive towards greater levels of abstraction, it is becoming increasingly recognized that a reintroduction of these forces is imperative for the continued vitality of economics as an edifying discipline. Yet the search for ways to more fully incorporate these forces into the discipline’s methodology has so far been incomplete. Often dismissed from serious consideration are perspectives that were usurped by the rise of neoclassical theory, but which may hold potential for incorporating the complex, and often ambiguous, events of the past. For example, the Institutional and German Historical Schools represent two schools of economic thought which could provide some insights into how one might proceed in this effort, yet they have received little attention from mainstream contemporary theorists. But this neglect is far from benign. In fact, the two schools suffer from a pervasive interpretation within the discipline’s historical narrative as being incomplete or misleading.2
