This succinct overview of Marshall's life and work as an economist sets his major economic contributions in perspective, by looking at his education, his travel, his teaching at Cambridge, Oxford and Bristol, his policy views as presented to government inquiries and his political and social opinions.

PETER GROENEWEGEN has been an active researcher in the history of economic thought for nearly fifty years, covering many aspects of the subject. He is currently Professor of Economics at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has published many books on the history of economic thought, including a widely acclaimed biography of Alfred Marshall, a collection in translation of Turgot's major writings on economics, and three volumes of his essays on the history of economics. As Director of the Centre for the Study of the History of Economic Thought from 1989 to 2003, he edited several volumes of conference proceedings and in 2005 his services to the subject were recognised by both the History of Economics Society (which named him a Distinguished Fellow) and the European Society of the History of Economic Thought (which made him an Honorary Member).