Toward a More Useful Economic History
经济史需要在学科分歧中证明其有用性和学术价值。本文通过三个案例说明，对比过去与现在能增进对两者的理解，并指出方法创新和数据进步虽推动领域发展，但未完全实现预期。
Torn between divergent disciples, economic history needs to prove its usefulness as well as its scholarly virtuosity. Innovations in method and data have carried the field forward, but perhaps not fulfilled the claims of their champions. To economics in particular, economic history contributes a richer sense of space and time, and the importance of demographic factors. Three vignettes attempt to illustrate that useful economic history can result from confrontations of past and present that improve our understanding of both. Finally, emerging developments in the underlying fields may herald a more central future role for our discipline.