THE ECONOMIC tradition known as the Austrian School began in 1871 with the publication of Carl Menger's Principles of Economics, although it would be years before the term "Austrian School" was coined. The Austrians were at the forefront of a "neoclassical revolution" in economics, a movement that built on the work of "classical" economists like Adam Smith (theories of demand, specifically) to place human action at the center of the economic world. This pit them against the Younger German Historical School, which considered history the only science qualified to explain human action. The resulting intellectual battle, dubbed the Methodenstreit ("debate on method"), lasted for several years and had lasting effects. Ironically, history would prove the Austrian School right.