I reflect on the role of modern economic history in economics. I document a substantial increase in the percentage of papers devoted to economic history in the top-5 economic journals over the last few decades. I discuss how the study of the past has contributed to economics by providing ground...

Introduction -- Industry origins -- Constructing expertise : Arthur Andersen, Diebold, and Canning-Sisson, 1953-1964 -- Processing data : IBM-SBC and automatic data processing, 1953-1964 -- Programming machines : computer usage, C-E-I-R, and computer sciences, 1955-1967 -- Integrating systems :...

I reflect on the role of modern economic history in economics. I document a substantial increase in the percentage of papers devoted to economic history in the top-5 economic journals over the last few decades. I discuss how the study of the past has contributed to economics by providing ground...