Economic History and the History of Economics

Economic History -- the story of what actually happened -- is intimately related to the history of economic thought -- the story of what economists thought had happened and was still happening. In 19th century England the classical economists were reformers, and they addressed themselves to the outstanding policy issue of the day: population growth, welfare relief for the poor, agriculture protection, the public debt, etc. The first six chapters of Blaug's Economic History and the History of Economics explore that particular theme in some of its dimensions. Blaug then explores the writings of Marx in which the question of technical change emerged as one of the major questions of the day. In three further chapters the theory of technical progress in both Marx and later economists is examined in some detail. The "marginal revolution" and the aftermath of marginalism are explored in subsequent chapters, and the book concludes with two chapters on unresolved issues in the history of modern economics since 1870, viewed once again in the light of changes in the institutional structure of the economies that formed the background of theorizing.