This work investigates how the history of economic thought is constructed and how the discipline of economics maintains its collective memory. The authors, Steven G. Medema and Warren J. Samuels, utilize their extensive expertise in the history of economic ideas to examine the methodologies and biases inherent in historical scholarship. They argue that the way economists interpret their own past is not a neutral process but a deliberate construction that shapes the current identity and boundaries of the field. By analyzing the evolution of economic historiography, the text provides a framework for understanding how disciplinary narratives are formed, contested, and solidified over time.

Scholars in the history of economics recognize this text as a critical examination of how the discipline constructs its own past. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for researchers and advanced students interested in the sociology of economic knowledge.