the historical school of economics was an approach to academic economics and to public administration that emerged in the 19th century in germany, and held sway there until well into the 20th century. the historical school held that history was the key source of knowledge about human actions and economic matters, since economics was culture-specific, and hence not generalizable over space and time. the school rejected the universal validity of economic theorems. they saw economics as resulting from careful empirical and historical analysis instead of from logic and mathematics. the school preferred historical, political, and social studies to self-referential mathematical modelling. most members of the school were also kathedersozialisten, i.e. concerned with social reform and improved conditions for the common man during a period of heavy industrialization. the historical school can be divided into three tendencies: the older, led by wilhelm roscher, karl knies, and bruno hildebrand; the younger, led by gustav von schmoller, and also including étienne laspeyres, karl bücher, adolph wagner, and to some extent lujo brentano; the youngest, led by werner sombart and including, to a very large extent, max weber.