Warren J. Samuels, Jeff E. Biddle and John B. Davis (Eds). A Companion to the History of Economic Thought (Book Review‪)‬

Warren J. Samuels, Jeff E. Biddle and John B. Davis (eds). A Companion to The History of Economic Thought. Malden, Oxford, Melbourne and Kurfurstendamm: Blackwell Publishing. 2003. Pp. xvii + 712. ISBN 0 631 22573 0. $US149.95; 99.99 [pounds sterling]. An edited book differs in many important respects from an authored work on the same subject. In comparative terms, it provides greater scope to address the breadth of scholarship across the field of study, but it is more difficult to relate and integrate particular themes that may have evolved, particularly when authors, and schools of thought, are divided by generations. In view of this, editors should undertake at least two important tasks: enlist contributors who, between them, can address the full breadth of issues in the subject under examination; and establish the book's intended goals, themes and general structure in a manner that enables the varying contributors to treat related themes on a comprehensive and integrated basis.