Most biographies of professors, and perhaps particularly professors of the dismal science, struggle to find grains of excitement in the sedentary lives of their subjects. Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Thomas McCraw's protagonist in "Prophet of Innovation" ( Harvard University Press, 506 pages, $35), does not pose that problem. The author unapologetically admits in his preface that this biography will not be focused on " Schumpeter's economic thinking, narrowly construed," but rather his "turbulent" range of experiences and "yeasty" amalgam of ideas. Indeed, Mr. McCraw's history of Schumpeter's life at times reads more like an eminent Victorian's than that of an economist. This was a man who once dueled a university librarian whom he found too parsimonious with his students' books, and who frequently remarked that he aspired to be the greatest horseman, lover, and economist in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was not going well, he would admit, with the horses.)full review
update: McCraw discusses his book with Russell Roberts in this fascinating hour-long podcast
