Henry C. Carey : first American economist -- The English classical school in the United States -- Epigones -- Economic thought in the south -- The new life in American economics -- Introductory -- Francis A. Walker -- Two philosophical economists : Simon N. Patten and John Bates Clark -- Appendix I. On collateral things, not being the main subject of the discourse -- Appendix II. Contemporary American economics -- Early American economics in its European setting -- American protests against English economics -- The development of the scientific point of view in relation to the tariff.

This work publishes for the first time Richard T. Ely's study of the history of American economic thought. Ely was both a reformer of economics and a leading economist between the 1880's and 1930's. A founder of the American economic association, he himself wrote on a vast number of topics. This history of American economics tells a story that is both straightforward and his own interpretation.