This volume -- a collection of papers which reflects on the deficiencies of current economic methodology and case studies which emphasize not the methods employed but the relevance of historical analysis to economics stems from a conference organized by Snooks at the A.N.U., Canberra, in 1991. It carries a very strong imprint of the editor, who contributes two chapters which pursue arguments he has developed in his most recent book, Economics without time, and divides into four sections: a long introduction from the editor on the contribution of historical economics to economics; three chapters on the role of history in economics, including one by Gary Hawke on what economic history has to offer to public policy; two chapters on urbanization and economic development; and four chapters on long-run issues in labour, business, and banking . . . It is to the case studies, I suspect, that most economic historians will be drawn and the editor is to be congratulated on bringing together an impressive cast of practitioners of historical economics. In a short review it would be uncharitable to identify any one of the chapters for particular attention, but the volume can be recommended for the high quality of the individual contributions and as testimony to the continued vitality of historical economics.