Kosar, Kevin R. "Mr. Creative Destruction." The Weekly Standard. Vol. 12, No. 35. May 28, 2007. (Review of Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction, by Thomas K. McCraw.)

Excerpt:

Economics, Carlyle famously grumbled, is the “dismal science.” With few exceptions (Adam Smith, Milton Friedman), its practitioners are little known to non-economists, and frequently mocked. Who can forget what Lyndon Johnson once said to John Kenneth Galbraith? “Did it ever occur to you, Ken, that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissin’ down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else.”

So it’s no small feat to make a jaunty read out of the life of an economist dead more than 50 years, and Thomas K. McCraw has done just that in his impressive new biography of Joseph Schumpeter. This is a result, in part, of McCraw’s smooth prose and storytelling skills: The words just flow, and the reader can quickly gobble up the chapters, which seldom exceed 20 pages in length. Moreover, McCraw is well equipped for the topic, as the author of 10 volumes on business history and capitalism.

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