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Schumpeter is much more serious than Keynes on the history of economic 
thought. But both of them enthroned analytical innovation, not history of 
economics. Schumpeter told Smithies in 1943 that he was working on the 
history of economics because "It is simply the subject, among all those 
at hand, that is furthest removed from current events" (letter from 
Schumpeter to Smithies; Arthur Smithies "Memorial: JAS, 1883-1950",  in 
Saymor E. Harris, Schumpeter, social scientifist, 1951). Robert Loring 
Allen, Opening doors: the life and work of Joseph Schumpeter (1991, 
chapter 24), told us that, at the end of his life,  Schumpeter was really 
upset with politics (war) and economics (Keynes), and virtually any 
conversation topic with colleagues was a pain. Allen explanation about 
Schumpeter's change of interest from theory to history is tought: "The 
creative juices, however, had abandoned him. He could no longer produce 
new and original theories. The alternative to creativity and original 
contribution is scholarship; he could make a contribution to the history 
of economics, a subject in which profounf knowledge, a prodigious memory, 
wide reading, literary skill, and analytical ability counted more than 
invention and inspiration. Possessing all of these qualities in abundance, 
he tired of failure in attempting to theorize; thus, he began spending 
more and more time reading and writing on the history of economics" (vol 
II, p. 144). 
 
Manuel Santos-Redondo 
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