ABSTRACT
From the 1870s up until the beginning of WWI, German universities held supremacy over their counterparts in Britain and France when it came to the quality of teaching and the enrollment of foreign students. During this time, a number of young American men went to Germany in order to obtain an advanced education in political economy due to the excellent international reputation of the German Historical School of Economics (GHSE). When they returned home after completing their studies, they brought their newly acquired knowledge, experiences, and ideas with them. Ultimately, they ended up revolutionizing the profession and education of political economy in the US based on the German systems and models that they were exposed to. This chapter presents some of the distinguished German-trained American political economists who played significant roles in the development of economic thought and higher education in the US from the late 19th century up until the outbreak of WWI. It also explains that these returning American economists and the GHSE opposed the abstract deductive approach, the laissez-faire doctrine, value-free economics, and methodological individualism while supporting the historical deductive approach, positive state action, methodological collectivism, and ethical economics.
