author
Wilhelm Roscher
1817–1894
A leading voice in 19th-century German economics, this scholar helped shape the historical school by arguing that economies should be understood through history, institutions, and national life. He spent much of his career at Leipzig and wrote widely on political economy and its development over time.
3 Audiobooks
Zur Geschichte der englischen Volkswirthschaftslehre aus dem III. Bande der Abhandlungen der Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften
by Wilhelm Roscher
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 2
by Wilhelm Roscher
Principles of Political Economy, Vol. 1
by Wilhelm Roscher
About the author
Born in Hanover in 1817, Wilhelm Roscher studied at Göttingen and Berlin before becoming a professor at Göttingen in 1844. In 1848 he moved to the University of Leipzig, where he taught for the rest of his life and became one of the best-known German economists of his century.
Roscher is especially remembered as a founder of the older German historical school of economics. Instead of treating economic laws as timeless and universal, he stressed that economic life should be studied in relation to a society's history, institutions, and culture. That approach made him an important bridge between history and political economy.
He published extensively, including major works on political economy and its history, and remained an influential academic figure until his death in Leipzig in 1894. His work is still noted for insisting that economics makes more sense when it is connected to the real experiences of nations and people.