Making of neoclassical economics

This study provides a contribution to the quest for an understanding of the origins, driving force and rise to predominance of neoclassicism in economics. Neo-classicism is perceived to be an emanation from the reigning capitalist system - not merely its explanation but its product. The period 1870-1914 covered the rise to predominance of neoclassicism and it has become one of the new leading areas of study in the field of the history of economic thought. The argument of the present volume is applicable to a variety of formulations of the central problem of neoclassical economics which include the subjective marginal utility theory of the 1870s and beyond; the economics of Alfred Marshall; the work of 20th-century writers working in the tradition or mould established by Marshall and Leon Walras; the Samuelsonian neoclassical synthesis of microeconomic price and resource allocation theory, and Keynesian macroeconomics.