In the first edition: The authors of this work create a multifaceted picture of the goals, methods, and results of modern economic history. They succeed in presenting their field as an economic discipline that seeks support in systematic economic theory to understand the world and its history, at least the changes in the conditions in which people live, think, and act. By focusing on concrete subjects, they demonstrate, despite the skepticism of some contemporaries, the heuristic value of theory-guided work, as well as some of the limits that constrain the explanatory power of economic thinking; here and there, a healthy dose of heresy mingles with the loyalty of the economic historian to the ecclesia of 'mainstream economics.' Hansjörg Siegenthaler, Professor at the University of Zurich.