7-30

• Ασδραχάς, Σπύρος Ι.

• History and Archaeology
• Economics and Business

• Οικονομική ιστορία

EDITOR’S NOTE: One of the constitutive objectives of The Historical Review has been to bring to the attention of international scholarship historical research in the broad field of the human sciences produced in the Greek language not only by members of the Institute for Neohellenic Research but by the larger research community in Greece. There could hardly be a more appropriate case in this direction than the work of a distinguished historian, who has played a leading role in the renewal of historical scholarship in Greece in the last quarter century and who has been a senior member of our Institute since 1986. Spyros Asdrachas has been a protagonist in chartering the entire field of economic history in Greece and has trained a whole generation of economic historians who are continuing along the trajectories he has opened up with his pioneering researches. What distinguishes his work in economic history is the broader historical culture he brings to bear upon the subject, which often suffers from a dryness of approach and a technocratic outlook, devoid of historical sensitivity. Asdrachas combines precisely that broad historical culture which is always the mark of a great historian with a professional dedication to a constant conversation with source material and to continuous reflection on questions of method. All these features of his intellectual profile mark his magnum opus, Greek Economic History, 15th-19th Centuries, of which it is a pleasure for The Historical Review to present here the opening chapter. In it the author outlines the substance of his approach, dwells on critical methodological issues and maps the territory of a vast field of research by pointing to the main substantive issues that have formed the focus of attention of the entire work. Even this concise introductory outline makes plain the complexity of the subject and the sophistication of the approach employed in attempting to bring intellectual discipline and coherence in its treatment. As such this text and the work it inaugurates represent a major milestone in contemporary Greek historiography. It is a work which is an inexhaustible mine of information and historical detail and at the same time a testimony of historical reflection and critical judgement. The work first appeared in Greek in 2003, published by the Piraeus Group Cultural Foundation, and an English translation, to be issued by the same publisher, is under way., 856:https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/historicalReview/article/view/3963, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12681/hr.181

• http://historicalreview.org/index.php/historicalReview/article/view/181