Economic history into the perspective of economic thought and historiography: Between the Symplegades

Abstract

The relation between economic theory and history, as is crystallised in the history of economic thought, determined the evolution of economic history proper. The twin events of the Marginalist Revolution and the Methodenstreit were crucial in exiling history from economic theory. Moreover, the dominance of the narrative historiographical paradigm in historiography, till the first decades of the twentieth century, determined the absence of theory from economic history. This twofold hiatus is decisive in the short history of economic history. This paper attempts to delineate this gap by showing that an organic symphysis between economic theory and history is indispensable in the understanding economic phenomena.