《经济发展理论》一书是约瑟夫·熊彼特早期成名之作。熊彼特在这本著作里首先提出的“创新理论”，当时曾轰动西方经济学界，并且一直享有盛名。此书最先以德文发表于1912年，修订再版于1926年，越数年又重印了德文第三版。 1934年，以德文修订本为依据的英译本，由美国哈佛大学出版社出版，被列为（哈佛经济丛书）第46卷。现在的中译本，据此英译本译出。
熊彼特的《经济发展理论》以 “对于利润、资本、信贷、利息和经济周期的考察”作为副标题，涉猎范围可谓极其广泛。但是书中最具特色和最引人注目的，还是他所提出的“创新理论”。
全书共分为六章。
第一、第二两章最为重要，从静止状态的“循环流转”到经济发展的根本现象，特别是第二章　，对经济发展，包括从“企业家”的特点和功能、 “生产要素的新组合”、“创新”的涵义和作用，直到资本主义的产生，熊彼特都作了开创性的精辟的论述，既是理论上的探讨，也是历史发展过程的概述。
第三、 四、五各章则进一步分别阐述了信贷与资本，企业家利润，以及资本的利息。我们可以概括地说，“创新理论”就是熊彼特“经济发展理论”的核心。

The ideas and the personalities of eminent men in the field of economics are described by a modern economist

Pan Am, Gimbel's, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland--all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. "Creative destruction," he said, is the driving force of capitalism. </p>
Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most sophisticated conservative" of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril--to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter's view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind. </p>
During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983--the centennial of the birth of both men--Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate. </p>
Prophet of Innovation is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were the conflicts between his reason and his emotions. Drawing on all of Schumpeter's writings, including many intimate diaries and letters never before used, this biography paints the full portrait of a magnetic figure who aspired to become the world's greatest economist, lover, and horseman--and admitted to failure only with the horses. </p>

《创新的先知:约瑟夫·熊彼得传》的目的在于重温熊彼特的生活和工作，以便我们更好地认识和评价熊彼特这个人及其影响。尽管熊彼特本人对数字十分感兴趣，但《创新的先知:约瑟夫·熊彼得传》不会是一部涉及极多统计数据的作品。不过，在我们认识熊彼特之前，先让我们用一种他很喜欢的快速统计预览法来简单考察一下他的研究对象——资本主义。当今普通美国人的现金收入是1800年时的二十多倍。如果你是美国人，试着想象一下你只花你收入的二十分之一来生活，由此所造成的生活方式的改变很可能让你不得不去种植自己生活所需的粮食，就像你的大多数先祖在1800年所做的那样。

本书中的这些文章是在1910-1950年这40年间所写，这十篇主要的文章，除了关于马克思的那篇以外，都是由熊彼特本人亲自挑选的。附录中关于克纳普、维塞尔和博特基威茨的三篇短文是根据哥特弗里德・哈伯勒教授的建议收入的，他认为应该重新出版它们，并和其他传记体的文章一起选入本书。除马克思以外，作者和这些传记文章的主人公之间有着密切的关系。熊彼特的特点是：对历史的和纯理论的东西、计量经济学和收集到的大量实际资料、社会学以及统计学，他持赞赏态度，认为它们有用。如此广泛的兴趣也反映在这些传记性的作品中。

At the time of his death in 1950, Joseph Schumpeter--one of the great economists of the first half of the 20th century--was working on his monumental History of Economic Analysis. A complete history of efforts to understand the subject of economics from ancient Greece to the present, this book is an important contribution to the history of ideas as well as to economics. Although never fully completed, it has gained recognition as a modern classic due to its broad scope and original examination of significant historical events. Complete with a new introduction by Mark Perlman, who outlines the structure of the book and puts Schumpeters work into current perspective, History of Economic Analysis remains a reflection of Schumpeters diverse interests in history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Major topics include the techniques of economic analysis, contemporaneous developments in other sciences, and the sociology of economics; economic writings from Plato and Aristotle up through the time of Adam Smith, including the medieval scholastics and natural-law philosophers; the work of Malthus, Mill, Ricardo, Marx, and the important European economists; the history, sociology, psychology, and economics of the period 1879-1914; and modern economic developments. Schumpeter perceived economics as a human science, and this lucid and insightful volume reflects that perception, creating a work that is of major importance to the history of economics.

《经济分析史》描述了经济分析这个领域中分析工作的发展和命运。从希腊罗马时代直到现在，以社会与政治历史为背景，同时注意其他社会科学和哲学的发展。这部史著被公认为是一部涉及范围最广、分析最为详尽深入的经济史专著。
书中对于西方的市场机制、竞争体制、企业创新、技术进步、自由贸易、保护政策、财政金融与货币管理等等的特点和作用，以及有关学派人物的学说主张和分析方法的来龙去脉和发展过程，都有十分详尽而比较深入的分析，还有作者本人的一些具有独特见解的评论。