The part played by general equilibrium in the liquidity preference vs loanable funds episode (1936–1956).

Using as a test the drawn-out liquidity preference vs loanable funds debate between 1936 and 1956, this paper pursues two lines of inquiries: to illustrate first the progressive conquest of Keynesian macroeconomics by general equilibrium techniques to build the neoclassical synthesis; and, second, to evaluate the epistemological status of the general equilibrium model used by the various debaters who were still confused about the connections between formal models and interpretative contents; hence, they systematically overestimated general equilibrium explanatory capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]