Prophet of Innovation

Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction

Thomas K. McCraw

  • Best Business Books of 2007 selection, Library Journal
  • 2008 Hagley Prize in Business History, The Business History Conference & The Hagley Museum
  • 2008 Joseph J. Spengler Best Book Award, History of Economics Society
  • 2008 Schumpeter Prize Competition, sponsored by The International Joseph Alois Schumpeter Society
  • A Spectator Best Read of 2008 Selection

Preface

Part I: L'Enfant Terrible, 1883–1926: Innovation and Economics

Prologue: Who He Was and What He Did

1. Leaving Home

2. Shaping His Character

3. Learning Economics

4. Moving Out

5. Career Takeoff

6. War and Politics

7. Gran Rifiuto

8. Annie

9. Heartbreak

Part II: The Adult, 1926–1939: Capitalism and Society

Prologue: What He Had Learned

10. New Intellectual Directions

11. Policy and Entrepreneurship

12. Between Two Worlds

13. Harvard

14. Suffering and Solace

Part III: The Sage, 1939–1950: Innovation, Capitalism, and History

Prologue: How and Why He Embraced History

15. Business Cycles, Business History

16. Letters from Europe

17. To Leave Harvard?

18. Against the Grain

19. The Courage of Her Convictions

20. Alienation

21. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy

22. War and Perplexity

23. Introspection

24. Honors and Resurgence

25. Toward the Mixed Economy

26. History of Economic Analysis

27. A Principle of Indeterminateness

28. L'Envoi

Epilogue: The Legacy

Notes

Acknowledgments

Illustration Credits

Index

  • Cover: Prophet of Innovation
  • A photo of the author

Photo by Richard A. Chase

Thomas K. McCraw is Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at the Harvard Business School. His book Prophets of Regulation was awarded the 1985 Pulitzer Prize in history.