Challenges the hold that cliometrics - an approach to economic history that employs the analytical tools of economists - has exerted on the study of our economic past. This book calls for the reconstruction of economic history, one in which history and the social sciences are brought to bear on economics, and not the other way around.

"Boldizzoni has written a powerful polemic that combines an impressive survey of a great deal of recent cliometric economic history writing with an impassioned plea for the revival of the European social-science tradition. The theme, simply stated, is the erroneous and irrelevant character of most economic history writing. It is a book that needed to be written."--Harold James, Princeton University
"I am struck by the immense and impressive range of "The Poverty of Clio." Few works in historiography can muster the scope and learning of this book, which will make it attractive not just to economic historians but to sociologists and historians of culture more generally."--Frank Trentmann, author of "Free Trade Nation"

"I . . . found The Poverty of Clio an interesting and stimulating read, recommendable for anyone interested in economic history."---Erik Bengtsson, Economic Sociology