----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Schumpeter, Joseph A, History of Economic Analysis. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1954. I don't know whether anyone has ever sat down and read the History of Economic Analysis from start to finish, but as a companion and reference book it is surely without equal. When I am faced with an unfamiliar author, topic, or period, Schumpeter is the first thing I turn to. His judgements may be challenged but they always have to be taken seriously. Nothing else comes close to it in its combination of breadth, depth and insight. Precisely because of the encyclopedic character of his work, it is quite impossible to enumerate the different aspects of the history of economics that Schumpeter reshaped. I will give one example that I know well. His identification of the sequence Petty-Cantillon-Quesnay has been fundamental to work on the seventeenth and eighteenth century. His claim that Cantillon is the direct ancestor of the Tableau Economique is an insight which is still not fully recognized. One could produce similar examples from every period and aspect of the history of economics. Tony Brewer, University of Bristol ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]