The Future of Economic History

The Cliometrics revolution is dead. By this I mean that the banners under which new economic historians organized and made common cause with technically oriented theorists, econometricians, and other applied economists no longer have the ability to inspire revolutionary fervor (especially among younger recruits) within economics departments. (The situation in history departments is somewhat different, as detailed below.) The Cliometrics revolution was part of a more general struggle against a more institutional/descriptive, less technically oriented old guard. The revolution is over because that battle was won—not only by new economic historians, but also by a new generation of applied mathematicians and theoretical statisticians working in economics departments