In The Uses and Abuses of Economics Terence Hutchison--the eminent and contentious grandfather of British economic thought--contributes to debates in the history of economic thought and in economic methodology. The material collected in this volume--much of which is appearing for the first time--includes some of the most significant and provocative arguments in the economic theory debate.

Always unorthodox and stimulating, Hutchison challenges traditional and current interpretations of economists ranging from Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Mill, and Jevons to the Austrian school, engaging with the masters of economic thought and providing compelling intellectual history of subjectivism in economic theory, Hutchison covers such issues as progress and regress in the development of classical political economy and economics; axiomatic and deductive methods in economic theory; and concerns relating economic theory to the practice of policy. This masterly work is marked with a perspicacity and spirit that hasn't been seen on this side of the Atlantic since the writing of John Kenneth Galbraith.