ABSTRACT
The chapters in this volume represent an economic and social historian’s approach to the history of economics.1 This involves a shift away from the customary preoccupation with the history of economic theory towards broader, less precise and more elusive matters, such as the interrelationships between economic ideas and their historical context, the influence of economic ideas on policy, and the public reputation, organization and professionalization of economics as an academic discipline and/or science.
