These essays explore what happens when a skilful economist makes unconventional assumptions. Economic theory has traditionally relied upon a tacit and classical set of assumptions that have gradually acquired a life of their own in defining how economists write and how they justify economic...

"Karl Polanyi is one of the most influential social scientists of our era. A report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) begins by noting that we are in a "Polanyi era": a time of dangerously unregulated markets, where the greatest need for decisive political action...

Chapter 1. General Introduction: Why Should We Study the History of Economic Theory? -- Chapter 2. Introduction -- Chapter 3. Economics in Cambridge: Alfred Marshall, the Old Cambridge School, and Their Opponents in England -- Chapter 4. Economics in Lausanne: Vilfredo Pareto and the Lausanne...