Skip to content

Working group

Economic History and Ideas

The Economic History and Ideas Working Group aims to bring together researchers working on economic history in a broad sense. Our purpose is to create a dialogue between historians of all periods and from different backgrounds, as well as scholars form other departments, who are interested in economic issues.

Our main activity consists in the regular gathering of a reading group that discusses classics in economic literature. The discussions combine comments on the text itself, reflections on its importance in the history of economic thought, and its possible relevance for the members’ own research topics. After Karl Marx’s Capital three years ago, several texts of the “Austrian School” from Karl Menger to Joseph Schumpeter two years ago, and an intensive last year of John Maynard Keynes from The Consequences of the Peace to the General Theory, we will start the 2023-2024 Academic year with Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. The following readings will be defined later according to the members’ wishes and interests.

The group also organises student-run seminars and events with external speakers that enable to discover ongoing research projects in economic history. We also provide the members with the opportunity to present their own research to a friendly audience of peers and get feedback on their own work.

 

Faculty liaison: Giorgio Riello

Go back to top of the page