Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman is today primarily remembered as an economist. Even as an economist, however, he is regarded as a secondary figure. By temperament a middle-of-the-roader, he advanced no radical new theories, founded no school. He is typically identified as a pioneer in the study of public finance and taxation. But this categorization fails to do justice to the breadth of his interests, the scope of his involvements, and the extent of his contributions. The major intellectual influence shaping his thinking was the German historical school of economics, with its emphasis upon the relativity to time and place of economic institutions and doctrines. He was a leading--perhaps the leading--authority of his day on the history of economic thought. At the same time, he played a key role in directing the attention of American scholars to the importance of economic factors in history. But he remained aware that...