Schumpeter seems to be well known in mainstream circles but is talked about relatively less in this site even though he’s an Austrian and written a lot about political economy.
Honestly, I have one of his books on my bookshelf that I need to get around to reading. From what I have heard through secondary sources, his theories on intellectuals is rather fascinating. I find that I am living through something similar to what he is saying. I am a history student and there isn’t much for me to do in terms of the business world. So it is either chump change jobs or academia. I’m going to do academia but need graduate level education.
Although a student of Bohm-Bawerk, Schumpeter was primarily influenced by Leon Walras and the school of static equilibrium. Essentially he got stuck in what Rothbard called “the Walrasian Box” where in order to account for real growth in a static world he defined invention and innovation as an esoteric feature unique to the capitalist system where the entrepreneur essentially became a mischieveous trouble-maker who wrecked the pleasant static equilibrium for everyone. The business cycle, according to Schumpeter, originated in the entrepreneur who was so successful at creating new technologies that they appeared in a wave-like motion rendering large sections of the population unemployed at a time thanks to their ingenious inventions. His book “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy” is a thrilling read, just to see his vision and contrast that with the Austrians.
He fundamentally agreed with Marx though, saw socialism as inevitable as a result of the bureaucratisation of big-business and the decay of family-values, which he saw as the main motivation and driving-force of the entrepreneur being his wife and kids, through a growing disregard of religion and acceptance of utilitarian rationalism which lead to an indifferent every-man-for-himself attitude. He himself was a utilitarian determinist and even went as far as to say that man in fact has no choice! He was convinced socialism could calculate too and thought Mises had been refuted. He is unique in the mainstream for his emphasis on the entrepreneur whom he described as a praeter-human warrior fighting against all the odds.
This is an interesting question. I hope someone else can shed some more light on this. I read a Schumpeter bio, but have read no material outside of what has been referenced of him.