ABSTRACT
With the Civil War behind it in 1865, the United States began a period of recovery and reconstruction. This era produced little in the way of leading economists, as American intellectuals looked to Europe for stimulation and guidance. Lacking an extensive pedigree in graduate education, the new nation sent many of its leading intellectuals to Germany for advanced training. But as the nineteenth century drew to a close, American economists began to emerge from the shadows of European influence and assert themselves more independently. Not surprisingly given the country’s rise from colonial status to full-fledged market economy, economists in the United States revealed a lively and ongoing interest in the place of the entrepreneur within economic theory. From the outset U.S. economists improved upon the English treat ment by insisting that the entrepreneur be separated from the capitalist. Thomas Cochran (1968) attributes this fact to the early development of modern corporations in the United States. But in all likelihood this theoretic turn was also affected by a pervasive German influence on U.S. scholars, many of whom received postgraduate economics degrees in that country.
