Revisiting Samuelson's Foundations of Economic Analysis

This paper re-examines the origins of Paul A. Samuelson's Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947), a book that helped define the way economic theory was undertaken for many years after its publication. Material taken from Samuelson's own papers and other archives is used to elaborate and correct his own account, written fifty years later. It discusses the role of his Harvard teachers, including Edwin Bidwell Wilson, the changes introduced between his 1941 PhD thesis and the book's publication, and the reception and significance of the book