In this discipline-defining volume, some of the leading international scholars in the history of economic thought re-examine the concepts of 'classical economics' and the 'canon', illuminating the roots and evolution of the contemporary discipline.

Introduction Evelyn L. Forget and Sandra Peart 1. 'Classical Economics:' a reification wrapped in an anachronism? Samuel Hollander 2. Notes towards an un-canonical, pre-classical model of political economy A.M.C. Waterman 3. Bentham and the classical canon Nathalie Sigot 4. A new institutional perspective on the canonical model: the case of capital markets in the wealth of nations A.M. Endres 5. Beyond the canonical growth model: knowledge and learning in classical economics, 1815-1834 Masazumi Wakatabe 6. Reading The Wealth of Nations in context: rethinking the canon of mid-eighteenth century British Political Economy Richard A. Kleer 7. Justice versus expediency: The Wealth of Nations as an anti-political economy Jeffrey T. Young 8. The canon in the history of the Adam Smith problem Ingrid Peters-Fransen 9. The French foundations of the classical canon Walter Eltis 10. J.-B. Say and the French liberal school of the nineteenth century: outside the canon? Richard Arena 11. Priceless value (or almost so): misunderstood concerns of Marx and Ricardo William J. Baumol 12. Sraffa's Ricardo after fifty years: a preliminary estimate Pier Luigi Porta 13. David Ricardo's contribution to the constitution of Ricardian Economics: a reconsideration of 1970's interpretations of the 1815 debate André Lapidus and Nathalie Sigot 14. Ricardian economics: reasoning about counterintuitive tendencies when system constraints are present Laurence S. Moss 15. Ricardo's use of Say's law: the case of the Post-Napoleonic War depression Timothy Davis 16. Does Ricardo's theory of money belong to the classical canon? Ghislain Deleplace 17. On Holllander's and Keynes's 'canonical' interpretations of Malthus T.K. Rymes 18. Theory, application and the canon: the case of Mills and Jevons Sandra Peart 19. Canons in the history of economic thought Alessandro Roncaglia 20. Claiming and reclaiming the past: the legitimizing role of the precursor concept John K. Whitaker 21. Economic texts as apocrypha David M. Levy 22. Women in the canon of economics Robert W. Dimand 23. The canon in economics Warren J. Samuels