ABSTRACT
The twenty-first annual meeting of the History of Economics Society was held at Babson College, 10-13 June 1994. Since 1994 marked the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Joseph A. Schumpeter's History of Economic Analysis (HEA), a request went out to those presenting papers at the conference to appraise what SdlUmpeter said about their subjects (if, indeed, he said anything at all) and to assess how well Schumpeter's treatment stacks up to contemporary thinking on their areas of expertise. The point of this exercise was not only to pay homage to perhaps the greatest work by one of the greatest economists of the twentieth century but also to use the HEA as a benchmark against which to measure progress in our small but thriving subdiscipline within economics. I was delighted that many of the 130 presentations harked back to Schumpeter's majestic HEA, either to document an alternative treatment of a current topic of interest or else to commend the esteemed Harvard economist for his pioneering investigations. I
At the end of the Babson conference a referee committee was set up and charged with the practical responsibility of deciding which of the papers submitted for publication would be accepted for inclusion in this volume. Eighteen of the thirty-six submissions were selected to become chapters. Together these chapters offer a rich tapestry of commentary and reflection on economic literature spanning several centuries. What they have in common is their connection to Schumpeter's magisterial volume or (with several exceptions) to important themes that Schumpeter raised in that volume.
