The History of Economics: Decline or Renewal?

Abstract Historians of economics are haunted by the marginalization of their field. What was true at the birth of the field is even truer today: To most economists, historical thinking is hardly relevant. Viewed from a different perspective, however, the history of economics thrives as never before—only now it is written as much by historians and social scientists without formal training in economics as it is by economists who specialize in the study of past ideas. A profound transformation in the constitution of the community of historians of economic ideas has been underway for at least a generation. This introduction tracks the gradual expansion of the field along two fronts: the history of science and intellectual history. Those expansions represents an opportunity for the exchange of research questions, topics, and methods among economists and noneconomists who work on the history of things economic.