Abstract

The historical schools of economics have been neglected within the arena of economic theory since the Second World War in favour of the now-dominant classical and neoclassical schools of economic thought. As alternative frameworks re-emerge, this book offers a revaluation of the legal theorist, economist and politician Torkel Aschehoug (1822–1909) and his historical-empirical approach to economics, a highly influential current in Norway during the last decades of the nineteenth century.

‘The historical school has received scandalously insufficient attention, even by historians of economic thought. Fasting has done a superb job in bringing the ideas of Torkel Aschehoug to an English-language audience.’ —Professor Geoff Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire

‘With his historical approach to economics, Torkel Aschehoug was a Norwegian pioneer. Today’s interest in connecting economics to a broader understanding of society makes Fasting’s revitalizing study timely indeed.’ —Professor Rune Slagstad, Oslo University College

‘This book should be compulsory reading for historians of economic thought who want to understand the intellectual background for the development of economics in Norway in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.’ —Professor Arild Sæther, University of Agder

Mathilde C. Fasting has just finished her doctorate in political science at the University of Erfurt, Germany.

‘Mathilde C. Fasting’s book is a fascinating and highly readable account of the most influential economist in Norwegian intellectual life in the late nineteenth century. Fasting carefully traces and analyses the intellectual impulses behind Aschehoug’s thinking, making this book a valuable contribution.’ —Professor Einar Lie, University of Oslo

The historical schools of economics have been neglected within the arena of economic theory since the Second World War in favour of the now-dominant classical and neoclassical schools of economic thought. ‘Torkel Aschehoug and Norwegian Economic Thought’ offers a revaluation of the historical-empirical approach to economics that the Norwegian legal theorist and politician Aschehoug became renowned for during the last decades of the nineteenth century up to his death in 1909.

Fasting approaches Aschehoug’s economic thought in relation to his Norwegian colleagues, as well as the dominant international economists of the time. This comparison shows a theoretical affiliation with Gustav von Schmoller, in particular, through Aschehoug’s major work ‘Socialøkonomik’, as well as British economist Alfred Marshall’s marginal theory.

Fasting blends a historical account of the dominant economic models of the late 1800s with a review of contemporary theory through recent economic crises. This work argues that Aschehoug’s ‘Socialøkonomik’ is strikingly relevant to a present-day readership, revealing itself as a work which offers real insight into the reasons for economic collapse.