Describes the history of economic thought, focusing on the development of economic theory from Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" to the late twentieth century. This text examines how important economists have reflected on the sometimes conflicting goals of efficient resource use and socially acceptable income distribution.
In clear, nontechnical language, this introductory textbook describes the history of economic thought, focusing on the development of economic theory from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations to the late twentieth century. The text concentrates on the most important figures in the history of economics, from Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx in the classical period to John Maynard Keynes and the leading economists of the postwar era, such as John Hicks, Milton Friedman, and Paul Samuelson. It describes the development of theories concerning prices and markets, money and the price level, population and capital accumulation, and the choice between socialism and the market economy. The book examines how important economists have reflected on the sometimes conflicting goals of efficient resource use and socially acceptable income distribution. It also provides sketches of the lives and times of the major economists.
"Taken as whole, this is one of those relatively rare books on economics that is both readable and thoughtful. It also fills a gap in the literature between primers written for non-economists and detailed (and sometimes arduous) histories of economic thought or its various subfields."
---Cameron Gordon, Economic Record
