"A tremendously rich and stimulating read. I know of no other recent book that brings history and economics into such a lively and constructive conversation."-- Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck, University of London "The great strength of the authors' theory of contingent expectations is that it takes into account the fact that expectations change according to historical context, personal experience, and the information available at a given moment. The book is fascinating because of its ambitious general thesis and the wide range of scientific references from a variety of disciplines."-- Eric Monnet, Paris School of Economics and EHESS "This excellent book provides long-needed substance to the common idea that economic events are the outcome of expectations and how they coordinate. Examining a variety of original sources, mostly from the last one hundred and fifty years (but with one from medieval times), the authors show conclusively that a universal model of expectation that accurately describes the behaviors of managers, investors, and households across time is inconceivable. Their concept of contingent expectations in which human actors draw on multiple sensemaking skills in their social environment captures a way to use this finding to progress and opens the subject to much more sensible study than hitherto."-- David Tuckett, University College London " Contingent Expectations delivers a powerful and historically rich reinterpretation of how economic actors form beliefs, overturning the notion that a single mode of expectations formation can account for behavior across time and context.

Nützenadel and Streb develop the concept of 'contingent expectations' with exceptional clarity, illuminating how experiential learning, information acquisition, and the narratives individuals invoke are shaped by the informational and institutional environments they confront. This book stands as a major contribution to the study of beliefs, establishing historically grounded heterogeneity in expectation formation as a central--and indispensable--feature of economic behavior."-- Michael Weber, Daniels School of Business, Purdue University "Alexander Nützenadel and Jochen Streb have combined economics and history to design a new model of 'contingent expectations' that is simple enough to be workable and flexible enough to account for historical complexity. This is no mean challenge. The result is an important book, offering food for thought to both academics and decision-makers."-- Youssef Cassis, European University Institute "Part economic history, part intellectual history, part theory, this intriguing book invites us to consider historical and social context as the foundation for the way people form their expectations about the economic future. A thought-provoking, informative, and thoroughly novel approach to a core issue in economics." -- Timothy W.

Guinnane, Yale University.