This book deals with the prime movers of socio-economic development, innovations and technical change, their origins, forms and effects. It contains a set of closely related chapters, some of which have been previously published as papers in scholarly journals

1. Introduction 2. Joseph A. Schumpeter - An Economist between Marx and Walras 3. Innovations and Profits. Schumpeter and the Classical Heritage 4. On the Growth of Knowledge about the Role of Knowledge in Economic Growth. A Critical Assessment of Recent Literature on Growth Theory 5. Whither the History of Economic Thought? Going Slowly Rather Nowhere? 6. Shorter papers: Capital, Classical Economics, Physiocracy, Quesnay, Ricardo, Ricardian Vice, Sraffa, Turgot, Wicksell Effects