Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers - Seventh Edition

Before you purchase this book know what it is not. This is not a comprehensive listing of every influential economist of the past 200 years. This is not an assessment of capitalism or an endorsement of any one point of view on political economy.

What this book is is a look at various influential economic thinkers of the past 200 years and an attempt to put their ideas regarding economics into the context of the worlds that they lived in. What I liked about this book was not that it compared and contrasted Adam Smith to Karl Marx and tried to see which one came up with a better world view. What I liked was that Heilbroner spent a good deal of time exploring the times and environments that helped to shape each man's views on capitalism. Markets do not operate in a vacuum, they are embedded in the society in which they a part and are shaped by the cultures and technologies that support them. Smith, Marx and Keynes all lived during times when new technologies were colliding with old cultural institutions and the results were massive upheavals that led these men to the ideas they are now famous for. Had Smith been born a century earlier he could never have written about the wages of labor as he did in 'Wealth of Nations' because England had not yet moved out of a feudal economy at that point. Had Marx written 'The Communist Manifesto' in the Germany of 1988 rather than the Germany of 1848 he might not have been so confident in predicting the demise of capitalism. It is this exploration of the times that the great economists lived in that helps the reader appreciate the insights of these great thinkers.

Some of the reviewers here have a problem with Heilbroner's choice of which economists he selected for this book. To that complaint I say that you can't write about everyone in a book this short and the author exercised his own judgment about who wasn't important enough to make the cut. If you don't agree with his assessment of who was worthy of inclusion in this book then go write your own overview of the great economists.

This book is a very good introduction to many (but certainly not all) of the most influential thinkers in economic theory and a high level overview of their ideas presented in a very accessible format for the general public. The intended audience is the curious layman, not the nit-picking post-graduate expert. For its intended audience this book succeeds wonderfully and I highly recommend it.

Heilbroner's classic provides an overview of the thought of the leading economic philosophers of the past two centuries in a well written, and even at times, humourous book. A great place to start to get an understanding of the thoughts of some of the leading philosophers.

This book was a required text for my freshman Macroeconomics course, but each page was truly a pleasure to read. Chock full of rich history and insightful analysis. Would recommend to anyone either struggling to understand economics or with an interest in the subject.

I first read this book by Robert L. Heilbroner while in college. It is an excellent summation of the major economic theories/theorists prior to Milton Friedman. The section on Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes were most rewarding. Keynes is still highly relevant to the practice of economics to this day. The book was in great condition.

I should state that I teach economics for a living and have a BA and MA in Econ, which ulitimately influences my review.

The book, overall, was a disappointment. I was looking for a book that a lay person could read (as this is what the other reviews told me). I wanted a book that I could assign to my students so that they may have a better understanding of the history of economic thought and who some of the key players were. This book only hit that mark 60% of the time. The best part of the book is the opening chapter on the history of markets. Truly a fascinating chapter filled with interesting facts about how acting out of one's own self-interest was actually banned by the church! This chapter is really the only value in the book. The rest of the book simply doesn't lay out the foundations of economics like I thought it would. It assumes that the reader is already well read in economics and that the information presented in the book will add a few detailed facts. As stated, I was looking for a broader approach to the topic. The one thing that I will say is nice about the book is it will expand anyone's vocabulary and it is well written, just not for the target audience I was convinced of.

As a substitute, I highly recommend Paul Strathern's "A Brief History of Economic Genius" - a great read and highly informational.

Like many weepy humanists, I don't read many books that deal with economics in a sincere, deep way (too dry, too mathy, the usual wimpy criticisms.) Heilbroner's overview os wonderful, not simply because he breaks down several notoriously byzantine, ideologically fraught economic world systems, but because he shows the reader the sincere human inquiries at the center of them. What is our world like? How did it get that way? Is it possible to exert control over it?

Economics in our age is, like so much else, polarized along militantly political lines. We demonize the thinkers on the other side of the fence just as readily as we tend to ignore, misunderstand or simply forget those we think are in our camp.

This book shows the history of a set of men who struggled to make sense of their world, of its nature and its cycles of boom and bust as our planet transitioned (and still continues to) from a primitive agrarian society to an increasingly market-centric one. It's a potent and important reminder that, aside from its reputation, economics is at root an intensely humanistic field. This is an excellent primer on the subject at large. Highly recommended.

Interesting history of economic theory. My problem is liberal snobbery that throws phrases like déracinés, vade mecum and curiosom around like they're common vocabulary.

Too one sided. Heilbroner tries to be fair, but it seems that if theory doesn't sync with the fall of capitalism then it's not worth mention. He rhapodizes over the likes of Karl Marx or John Maynard Keynes; but, for example, only a tiny mention of Milton Friedman (almost a slight): "Even Friedman and Galbraith are more interested in criticizing the mistakes of the present than in creating models of Smithian or Marxian or Schumpeterian scope." When not just sentences but full paragraphs are frequently italicized, it becomes more preaching than teaching.

Zero mention of Ayn Rand.

Reading level: challenging.

"Economic reading, by popular hearsay, is a veritable desert of dusty prose. In all honesty, much of it is. The student of economics must be prepared for long journeys without a single refreshing sentence; it takes the endurance of a camel and the patience of a saint to finish some of the great texts." Robert L. Heilbroner

I've had this book on the shelf for over twenty years. I purchased it for an Intro to Macroeconomics class but I must not have read it at the time – or maybe we only had to read a small part because I found my annotations in only one chapter – but I decided to pick it up again and I'm very glad I did. Heilbroner looks at the great (and not-so-great) economists from Adam Smith down to John Maynard Keynes. And he truly tells you about their "lives, times and ideas" and makes the history come alive. Not only does he tell about Smith's "Invisible Hand" and supply and demand but also how he'd sometimes go into these trances where he'd end up marching for hours before coming out of it! And you learn about Keynes' insights into economic depressions (which may explain our current economic malaise) as well as his dalliances with men. There's also many in between, including some of the 'nuts' like Robert Owen, Henry George, and Thorstein Veblen. And, of course, there's Karl Marx.

The section on Marx is probably my favorite because Heilbroner makes you see the world Marx and his theories came from – as well as how often he was right! He points out that Marx "was not the architect of actual socialism" – that was Lenin – and it's so insightful that it almost makes me want to read Capital! In fact, the whole book was utterly fascinating. Heilbroner doesn't just explain economic ideas or even merely put them into context, he does it in a way that entertains, and he even made me laugh! My copy is from 1986 and it would be interesting to see what he'd thought of the collapse of communism just a few years later (maybe it was updated in a later edition?).

This book completely omits Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, three of the most influential and important economists of the 20th century. And it does so because the author is not at all concerned with giving the reader a broad understanding of economics' greatest minds, but to promote left wing, collectivist, pseudo-socialist economics. Mises alone is one of the most seminal economists in human history. Even his ideological opponents would admit as much. Yet he is mysteriously absent from a tome about famous economists. Such an omission is NOT done by accident.

This book was assigned to my freshman "history of economics class" and I remember reading it and having no idea what was going on. There's a lot of tricky language and it's very thorough. I re-read it recently and definitely have found a new appreciation for it. The second chapter on market revolutions is great.

"Every day the community faces the possibility of breakdown -- not from the forces of nature, but from sheer human unpredictability."

"They lived in a world that was not only harsh and cruel but that rationalized its cruelty under the guise of economic law. Necker, the French financier and statesman, said at the turn of the century, "Were it possible to discover a kind of food less agreeable than bread but having double its substance, people would be reduced to eating only once in two days." Harsh as such a sentiment might have sounded, it did ring with a kind of logic. It was the world that was cruel, not the people in it. For the world was run by economic laws, and economic laws were nothing with which one could trifle; they were simply there, and to rail about whatever injustices might be tossed up as an unfortunate consequence of their working was as foolish as to lament the ebb and flow of the tides."

"Man is the creature of circumstances." And who makes the circumstances but man himself? The world is not inevitably good or bad but to the extent that we make it so."

"It is only be- cause man is a socially cooperative creature that he has succeeded in perpetuating himself at all."

This is perhaps the most popular introduction to economics ever written and to a great extent this is deserved. Heilbroner writes in an engaging style, drawing the reader into the lives, times and achievements of a broad selection of the more influential economists of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. While at times critical, for the most part the book takes an objective look at the insights contributed by each economist included, be they mainstream or fringe.
But this brings me to my only major criticism of the book, which is that, within the 'Austrian' economic tradition, it includes only Josef Schumpeter. Now Schumpeter is worthy of inclusion, to be sure, but Heilbroner's focus on Schumpeter is limited to his introduction of the concept of 'creative destruction'. While this insight was no doubt important, Heilbroner completely overlooks Schumpeter's association with the broader aspects of the Austrian economic tradition, including the dangers of state intervention in the free-market, such as the market-distorting effects of central banking.
To be fair, Heilbroner was writing at a time when the Austrian school's influence was at its nadir and the neo-Keynesian influence reigned supreme over the economics profession. As such, The Worldly Philosophers is constrained by the prevailing views of the time. Nevertheless, it still qualifies as an excellent if incomplete introduction to economics.
John Butler, author of The Golden Revolution: How to Prepare for the Coming Global Gold Standard (John Wiley and Sons, 2012)

This is a sinfully enjoyable book. In the first place, it's about the getting and spending, the hope for wealth and the threat of poverty that occupy so much of our energy and emotion. This is a history of economic thought told through the lives and ideas of the most important innovators in this quintessentially modern branch of knowledge. Secondly, it is written in a style that is clear, colloquial, and intelligent. Our author knows his material so well that he can explain without strain. And finally, the organization is about as pleasing a mixture of learning and gossip as one could want. Starting with Adam Smith, going through such as Marx, Mill, and Keynes, and winding up with Joseph Schumpeter, the text treats us to charming and humorous mini-biographies of these unusual fellows along with non-technical (but not trivial!) discussions of their work.
But the title is not misleading: this is neither technical analysis nor, strictly speaking, science. Most of the men (they are all men!) profiled here were interested in larger issues than utility theory or supply-demand curves. Many lived before economics was separated out from more general speculation about society and morals. But even where they confined themselves to what we would call "economic" motives, they wrote prose - in some cases charming or brilliant prose - instead of equations. Economics occupies that intersection of the possibilities of brute nature and our accommodations with each other in society, so its inherently fuzzy subject matter is probably better captured in words than numbers. And life, too, happens to economists, just as it does to everyone: here we see how one's life and times can influence one's ideas. It's good to get a different take on Marx or Smith or Keynes than comes from the noisy network ideologues who yank their thoughts out of their context.
This book has no prerequisite but interest and an enjoyment of good writing on important matters. After all, as Keynes put it: "Practical men, who believe themselves exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."

For all its flaws, "The Worldly Philosophers" is a magnificent story of economists, their ideas, and how those ideas were contested. If you expect this treatment of economists to be dull, you will find that you are mistaken. With his romantic use of language and biographical anecdotes, Robert Heilbroner paints a picture that lures the reader into a field that is so often mystified and abused. I chose Economics as a major because of this book and it is still an enjoyable read.
Some chapters are better than others, and those on Smith, Marx, and Keynes are probably the most interesting as well as relevant to our day. His lofty words often border on exaggeration or spectacle when it comes to the discussion of people, but there are also analyses of thoughts and theories that are not at all complicated for the lay reader. That said, it is not a book on economics, but rather a story about economists. Do not expect to understand economics by reading this book. If you don't know economics, you will learn only a general feel for what economists attempt to explain and how those explanations have changed throughout the years. But even that, I think, is valuable.
The author is a socialist and it shows, but I don't feel that it is too problematic. Until the last chapter, there are no blatant endorsements of particular views. The analyses and criticisms are good, and if his praise of people like Marx or Keynes seems overboard, I feel that he is praising their boldness and inventiveness more than anything. The point is that these thinkers were amazing, and their ideas changed how we perceive the world. And as we shifted our understandings, our institutions and actions changed. There were other thinkers involved too, and they may have been unfairly dismissed by Heilbroner. But what comes through in the end is the passion for learning about the world. For that, this book is invaluable.

Now in its seventh edition, "Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and with each edition he's further refined and polished it and in the process it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

I have a bit of background in basic economics and read this book hoping to learn more about the great economic thinkers, their theories, and economic history. The book ticks all of those boxes, but not in as thorough a way as I would have liked. As other reviewers have mentioned, the book spends a lot of time discussing the brilliance and the quirkiness of the subjects, as well as their life and times and their relationships with one another. This sort of context is useful, and occasionally entertaining, but unfortunately it's offered at the expense of substance: after reading and re-reading the chapter on Marx, for instance, I had only the vaguest idea of the thrust of his ideas. When those economic ideas are discussed, the language of the book can be dense, and I found that I had to re-read some sentences three or four times to understand them. In places, the language feels intentionally lofty and the book would've benefited from more clarity. The book also spends time discussing some people, such as the Utopians, who seem tangential and not terribly relevant to the progression of economic thought, whereas others whom I expected would be included, such as Hayek, are elided completely.

That said, the book still does a great job presenting a high-level overview of the most important economic figures, and in spite of the sometimes difficult language, it's a generally quick and enjoyable read. The introduction is fantastic, the best introduction to the field of economics (and economic history) I have ever read, and the conclusion on the intersection of economics and science, and where economics goes from here, is thoughtful and thought-provoking.

Definitely recommended as long as you know what you're getting yourself into and don't expect to be an expert on economic history after finishing the book.

Frederic Bastiat, a nineteenth century French economist, once wrote a open letter calling on parliament to intervene and prevent unfair competition from ruining the industries related to lighting; his argument was plain: "We are suffering from the intolerable competition of a foreign rival placed, it would seem, in a condition so far superior to our own for the production of light, that he absolutely mandates our national market with it at a price fabulously reduced ... This rival ... is no other than the sun."
Sarcasm, Robert Heilbroner tells us, is just one of many ways in which economists have tried to express their ideas and make them intelligible to a skeptical public. If Bastiat comes off as an eccentric, that is because he was. But wait till you meet others such as absent-minded Adam Smith or aspiring revolutionary Karl Marx. Only then will the world of economics become alive.
In this succinct volume, Mr. Heilbroner aims to make economics appealing to non-economists. There are no graphs, few numbers, and all ideas are conveyed in a superb way, paving the way for future inquiries (a rich bibliographical survey serves the same purpose). The book will also excite those with an economics background, as it offers anecdotes into people whom students usually know only academically. Still, the greatest contribution will be the introduction of the economics world to those who seem aloof to it, either because they find it boring or difficult. After reading this book, they should change their minds.

The Worldly Philosophers has now gone through seven editions and is more or less the canonical popular intro to economics. Hence I doubt there's anything I could say about its content that many, many others haven't already said. Still, one ought to say something.

The book's aim is to convince you that economists and their ideas have mattered. In this, it's a narrower and more vulgarly (in the good sense) written "History of Western Philosophy". In the latter, Bertrand Russell wanted people to stop thinking about philosophers as remote, irrelevant thinkers in togas. Robert Heilbroner is somewhat less successful at convincing us that economists -- with the exception of Marx -- have had much of an effect beyond the academy. He normally will state without explanation that one idea or another fell like a bombshell; it's not clear whether these bombs blew up a few dusty university filing cabinets or houses with people living in them.

Where Heilbroner thrives is in sketching the contents of these economists' ideas. This he does in a few spirited pages per person. In perhaps 5 pages, Heilbroner explains John Maynard Keynes's ideas with more clarity than I could glean from Robert Skidelsky's thousand-odd pages of biography. In every one of Heilbroner's sketches, I found at least one book that will have to go on my to-read list. If that wasn't enough, Heilbroner includes an extensive, charmingly annotated for-further-reading section at the back.

As a presenter of economic facts and theories, Heilbroner is the best I've found so far. His view of economics, though, is less grand than I've come to expect. What I get from an economist like Sam Bowles is a picture of economics-as-she-could be, and economics-as-she-has-been, that encompasses enormous questions: how institutions form and die, how inferior institutions survive, how people behave at the voting booth, why altruism would spread, and so forth. Heilbroner more or less sticks to the smaller questions: how people spend their money, the rise and fall of capitalist economies, and what practical men can do to spur spending during times of economic crisis. These are surely important questions. They just don't inspire me quite the way economics does when it's applied to broader questions of politics and coordination.

Heilbroner's mind and scope in this book are quite broad, just along a different axis. The opening chapter, in particular, asks and answers the question of why Adam Smith is revered as the first modern economist. What was the world like before Smith? To hear Heilbroner tell it, there was nothing for economics to do before Smith: command economies of the sort that built the Egyptian pyramids didn't need to worry about where best to allocate resources or what budgets they were operating under: a dictator sent an army of slaves to do his bidding, and that was it. Feudal economies didn't need to think of moving economic resources from one use to another or people from one job to another: you were born into your father's profession and you would die there. The world had to go through astonishing spasms (think even of medieval laws against usury) to make the capitalist world possible; until then economics had nothing to study.

Which is to say that Heilbroner is extremely valuable: he reminds us that the world we live in isn't the only possible one. There was a time when capitalism didn't exist, and there will probably come a time when it no longer does. (Schumpeter certainly thought that capitalism had no long-term future.) We need to be reminded of this as often as possible. It's too easy to view the world with the comfortable certainty of middle-class, early-twenty-first-century American life; it's nice to be shaken out of that from time to time.

In this classic book, Robert Heilbroner takes us on wonderful tour of economic thought, focusing on Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Owen, Saint-Simon, Mill, Marx, Edgeworth, George, Bastiat, Hobson, Marshall, Veblen, Keynes, and Schumpeter. Additional economists could have been included, but this is plenty, and the biggest names are all here. Heilbroner emphasizes the ideas of these economists, but he also provides plenty of context in terms of their biographies, personalities, and sociohistorical setting. And he does all of this with writing which somehow blends erudite elegance with unpretentious directness, resulting in a book which is both enjoyable and penetratingly clear (the style reminds me of Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Book) by E.T. Bell).

By the time you work through all of these economists, your head may be spinning a bit and you may be wondering what to make of all the diverse ideas. If so, you're in luck because Heilbroner's last chapter does a perfect job of tying everything together (every historical book should end with a chapter like this!). Here are the key points, as I saw them:

(1) In the past, once market economies got going, economic activity had enough regularities to allow forecasting of general economic trends. But the economy could never be seperated from other aspects of social activity, so detailed economic predictions couldn't reliably be made.

(2) As Western societies evolved (mainly cultural and technological change), economic regularities also evolved. Thus even broad forecasts of general economic trends were eventually rendered obsolete and invalid, which is why each major economist was able to plausibly claim that his predecessors were wrong.

(3) During the past several decades, capitalist societies have evolved to a point where even basic economic regularities have become less prevalent. This has made economies less self-organized, more unstable, more indeterminate, and thus less amenable to forecasting, even at the level of general economic trends.

(4) Given the indeterminacy of contemporary market economies, the proper role of economists may be to help steer economies in politically-chosen directions, taking care to not overdo it. Regardless of how hands-on or hands-off we are, we can't reliably predict how successful we will be, so time will tell ...

As far as potential criticisms of the book, perhaps the major one would be that Heilbroner focuses on the Western world, with little discussion of globalization, and he also doesn't give adequate attention to the historical roles of slavery and colonialism, so his treatment is somewhat insular. I also agree with other reviewers that it's odd to not mention the theory of comparative advantage in the discussion of Ricardo, but this is a lesser issue.

Nevertheless, overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in economics. It informs in a way that makes economics anything but a dismal science, and I think that Heilbroner ends up reaching accurate conclusions.

Written with a prose that reminds me of Thomas Bullfinch, Will Durant and Joseph Campbell, The Worldly Philosophers will transport you to a bygone time and place where the ideas of the great economists will spring to life and effortlessly make sense. But you will not be left hanging in the 19th or 20th century either - Heilbroner also discusses each economist's legacy updating their ideas to our own century.

First published in 1953 and now in its seventh edition this book is the canon of introductory texts on history of economic thinking. Millions of Economics 101 students could not be wrong - or could them?

Here is a list of main ideas included in the book::

1 - Economics as a field of study could not have risen before markets have establish themselves around the 18th century;

2 - Scores of greedy individuals looking after their own interests and being rewarded for their efficiency make for a better society for everybody - enters the invisible hand;

3 - When everybody seemed optimistic about the future, a young reverend wrote an essay stating that the world food production could never keep up with population growth - enters the dismal science;

4 - David Ricardo, the unsung hero of globalization, remains unsung for his amazing theory of competitive advantages, based on which a nation that is superior in producing everything will still be better off by trading with a less efficient nation, is not explained in the book. This is a major fault.

5 - The transition from feudalism to the industrial age resulted, at least initially, in appalling conditions for the working class. A movement called the Utopian Socialists that sadly bundled together the great John Stuart Mill with the airhead Charles Fourier tried to propose solutions;

6 - Marx (Karl, not Groucho) once said he was not a Marxist. Is it fair to say that I am a Marxist because I am not a Marxist? Enters the Dialectical Materialism;

7 - Despite Mill's and Marx's preaching, what really lifted the European proletariat out of abject poverty was the emergence of the proletariat's proletariat in the way of the millions of souls captured during the 19th and early 20th century European imperialist expansion into Africa and Asia - homo homini lupus;

8 - Thorstein Veblen gave, with The Theory of the Leisure Class, a new explanation for the stability of capitalistic society. The proletariat would not overthrow the leisure class for the simple reason that deep inside the proletariat wished to partake in the same leisurely lifestyle. That almost seemed possible with the great bull market of the 1920s until...

9 - The 1929 market crash came along and in its wake the great depression. A new theory for anti-cyclical monetary measures was needed and that came in Keynes' The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money;

10 - Throughout the first half of the 20th century Joseph Schumpeter revisited Karl Marx's theories and gave a new explanation for the existence of profits in the capitalistic system, the entrepreneur;

11 - In a sad final chapter Heilbroner declares the age of Worldly Philosophers ended with the passing of Joseph Schumpeter. Great names such as John Kenneth Galbraith and Milton Friedman are not equated by Heilbroner to the above mentioned airheads such as Charles Fourier. But it his book and not mine, and a great book by the way, far better than I could ever dream about writing...

As a companion book to The Worldly Philosophers I also recommend Niall Ferguson's The Ascent of Money.

Leonardo Alves - Brazil 2010

In this justly famous volume, first written more than fifty years ago and now in its seventh edition, Robert Heilbroner brings to life the great practitioners of the dismal science. Starting with Adam Smith and ending with Joseph Schumpeter, Heilbroner shows the sparkle and variety and even the romance of these social scientists that many readers might think of as boring. By humanizing them, he illustrates that economists ask questions and search for answers which are too important to be dull.
"The Worldly Philosophers" weaves the details of the economists' lives into their work, making it easy for the reader to remember their important ideas. Thorstein Veblen's idiosyncratic work, so different from the concerns of most economists, is shown to be of a piece with his idiosyncratic life. John Maynard Keynes iconoclastic (and yet discriminating) mind, completely at odds with his mentor Alfred Marshall's straightforward analytical approach to the discipline, is described as crucial to his understanding the underlying reasons for the Great Depression.
Economics and economists are rarely presented with such style. And yet, ultimately, it is Heilbroner's fascination and focus on style that undoes some of the greatness in this book. Heilbroner is at home with the old political economists of yesteryear that wrestled with the great questions and used a few simple models in their books. He despises, however, the recent turn by the modern economics profession away from its literary roots towards a more mathematical approach. His unwillingness to come to terms with why economists use more math is the only flaw in an otherwise wonderful book.

"Worldly Philosophers" is probably the best, most authoritative title on the development and growth of economic theory. "Worldly Philosophers" is an outgrowth of Heilbroner's 1953 doctoral thesis and with each edition he's further refined and polished it and in the process it has gone on to sell four million copies, making it the second best selling book on the subject of economics. Heilbroner gives a great overview of the economic process in early societies up until the time of Adam Smith and his revolutionary "The Wealth of Nations." Heilbroner carries the reader onwards as successive economists attempt to make sense of the world around them, introducing the reader to the theories of Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Veblen, and Keynes, among others. Heilbroner charts the expansion of economic theory in a straightforward linear fashion and shows how these varied economists questioned the theories of those before and postulated their own theories based on how they saw the world.

I hadn't expected "Worldly Philosophers" to be such a lively and enjoyable read, which says a lot about Heilbroner's clarity and caliber of writing. It is far more enjoyable than his later "Making of Economic Society," which borrows liberally from this tome. If you are looking for a concise, well written history of economics, you need look no further than here.

This is a great book about philosophers who layed the foundation for modern economic ideas. It provides a wonderful snapshot of the lives and times of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, J.S. Mill, Thorstein Veblen, J.M. Keynes, and Joseph Schumpeter, along with a synopsis of their economic thought. Professional economists and economic historians will find this book a bit too basic. The intended audience here is the sophisticated general reader interested in intellectual history, especially as it pertains to economics. I also recommend this book to all students of economics, political economy, public policy, and those studying history of Britain of the last two centuries.
Heilbroner is a good writer and brings his subjet to life. Political economy of economically advanced countries is one of my fields of specialization; and I wrote a dissertation on it, using the Internet as an example of a technological field created as a result of cooperation between business, government, and universities. Still, I learned a lot from this book. It has important facts as well as interesting tidbits that will captivate most intelligent readers.

This book is an important history of economic thought throughout the ages. It gives the general reader a basic understanding of how economics has changed through the years from Adam Smith to contemporary times.
The impression I gained of this book was that economics does not have a unified theory that addresses all circumstances. A doctrinaire approach could lead to disaster if the solutions proposed to not match the circumstances they were meant to address. In fact, most of the great thinkers of economic matters are addressing specific difficulties which tend to be narrowly focused on a particular set of circumstances. Adam Smith sought to address the problems of mercantilism, Karl Marx the dislocations of the industrial revolution, Keynes, the problems of deflationary economic policy. This is an insightful thesis which explains a great deal.
This book is useful to the person who is familiar with economics and a cautionary tale for people like myself who are not. It provides a good overwiew and gives a good critical understanding of the men and ideas who have contributed to our understanding of these issues.

This is the latest edition of this popular book. Potential readers need to be clear what this book is and just as important, is not. This is not a systematic history of economic thought or an introduction to economics. This is a basic overview of the ideas of a number of important economic theorists and the backgrounds against which their ideas emerged. Heilbroner is a good writer with an eye for telling anecdotes. He has considerable mastery of source material and is even handed in discussing his subjects. A recurrent theme is the way in which each important thinkers' ideas reflected the experience of capitalism in his time. Some chapters are better than others. I liked particularly the chapter on Marx which does a nice job of discussing the strengths and weaknesses of Marx's analysis. I would personally prefer a more demanding and systematic book but as a very readable and entertaining introduction, this book can't be beat. An excellent volume for an intellectually curious high school student or undergraduate.

I first read this classic ten plus years ago during winter break as an undergraduate economics major. Not much sunk in back then, which says more about me than it does about the skilled author, Robert Heilbroner. The author turns a two hundred year history of rather recondite theories and inaccessible economic tomes into a clear chain of thought delivered with felicity of phrase and graceful presentation. It is recommended as much to the general educated reader as the adolescent economist on campus.

To begin, the author notes that there was no need for economics before the eighteenth century. He argues that prior to that economic interaction was either cultural or authoritarian in nature. That is, you were either born into your role in society - baker, butcher, tanner, etc. - or were explicitly told by the local magistrate what to do (i.e. build me a pyramid). In such a system, inherently devoid of free choice, there was simply no need for the study of how goods were produced and distributed - they just were.

Heilbroner's approach in "The Worldly Philosophers" is perfect: he tells the story as an interconnected set of biographical vignettes. The narrative is told relay-fashion, with each giant of the so-called dismal science handing the figurative baton on to his successor at the end of each chapter.

Despite the author's best efforts to emphasize (and often over-emphasize) each man's (and they're all men) contribution to our understanding of modern economics, only four profiles really emerge as epochal: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. The rest of the lives are curious, sometimes compelling, faithfully entertaining, but of significantly lesser gravitas. Many are odd balls, such as the Victorian utopians Saint-Simon, who inspired a cult, and Charles Fourier, who ventured beyond economics to prognosticate on the rise of new moons and life on celestial bodies. Others are rather musty, like Francis Edgeworth, who developed a mathematical model that solved for pleasure seeking, and Alfred Marshall, who during the Great Depression emphasized the central role of equilibrium to the proper functioning of macroeconomics.

So who were these giants - Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and Keynes - and what did they discover and argue that distinguishes them from the rest?

For Smith, it was the initial and vastly important recognition of the existence of a self-regulating market. Products, prices, and wages would all be kept in line without a government official lifting a finger. Self-interest and natural impulses would ensure that everything would work out right. If people wanted more hats, the price of hats would rise, people would exit other industries to become hat makers, and the price of hats would fall. A key hypothesis underpinning Smith's model was that labor, if given sufficient monetary resources, would procreate and thus produce more and more future laborers, which would depress wages. Smith also has the unique distinction of being the first and only economist to create a model that reflected both in generalities and particularities the actual economy in which he lived - a collection of small and easily interchangeable capitalists and laborers.

Ricardo gave us the modern economic model (with assumptions galore and thus susceptible to the "Ricardian vice" of assuming away inconvenient realities) and the concept of economic rents that persists in many commodity markets today, the petroleum industry being most notable. What surprised me here was that Heilbroner did not once associate him with the concept of comparative and absolute advantage, which my undergraduate and graduate educations in economics always emphasized when talking about Ricardo. Given Ricardo's concept of economic rents and the negative role he ascribed to the landlord - who contributed no value to the market and yet siphoned off the vast majority of the gains - it is no wonder that he was viewed as the apostle of free trade before the Corn Laws and even without the concept of comparative advantage.

Marx also looms large for reasons that I would not have anticipated. Heilbroner cites two achievements as especially groundbreaking. First, it was Marx who argued that society is developed and changed by its economic structure - specifically how goods are produced and exchanged - and not by political philosophy or style of government. Second, Marx was the first of the great economic thinkers to recognize the importance of technology in how the economy functioned. Marx saw labor-saving technology as ultimately the cause of capitalism's downfall when all profits were squeezed out of the economy because labor (and the source of profits - labor's overtime "surplus value") was eliminated.

Finally, Keynes is portrayed as almost superhuman. A polymath who was a centerpiece of Virginia Woolf's exclusive high intellectual Bloomsbury crowd, a balletomane who married the legendary prima ballerina from the Diaghilev Ballet Ruse, Lydia Lopokova, who wrote politically disruptive best-sellers (such as "The Economic Consequences of the Peace"), and who happened to make a fortune trading currencies on the side. Indeed, as Heilbroner writes, "He was a phenomenon." Keynes is generally remembered for his endorsement of substantial government interference in the economy. While this may be somewhat accurate, Heilbroner emphasizes a slightly different point. Namely that Keynes argued rather persuasively that capitalism was not dynamic; it could very well stagnate at any level of national income if faith in a prosperous future was not restored. Previous economic greats from Smith onward maintained that the market was self-correcting; if times were bad, wages and interest (the price of investment) would ultimately fall until the capitalists took advantage of the opportunity. Keynes crushed that cherished concept.

In closing, my favorite character in "The Worldly Philosophers" was not one of the truly great economic minds. It was the anti-social, philandering (an odd combination for sure) Norwegian-American Thorstein Veblen. His arguments spoke to me as no others did. Veblen is perhaps best known for his 1899 publication "The Theory of the Leisure Class" in which he maintains that man's economic behavior is not rational, but rather somewhat primordial and thus more closely related to anthropology. We strive for big houses, fancy cars, and other objects of conspicuous consumption to show the rest of society in tangible terms just how powerful we are. These possessions are the equivalents of scalps pinned to the wall of our teepees. Second, Veblen maintained that capitalists actually aimed to subvert the economy, not promote it. He argued that rational engineers were the natural captains of a smoothly functioning economy, but that rapacious capitalists sabotaged the system to make money in the financial morass. It is difficult to read Veblen's words and not think of Wall Street bankers circa 2008.

All told, this is a well-written, easily accessible tour de force.

The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner provides a collection of short biographies of great thinkers in the world of economics over the past few hundred years. The book includes well-known economists like Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes, as well as lesser-known individuals such as Robert Owen and Frederic Bastiat. Heilbroner tells the story of economic and political history using the famous economists, or worldly philosophers, in a way that explains economic concepts as they developed within a historical context. The book provides a comprehensive explanation of developments and theories that have led to current economic philosophy.

Heilbroner puts a human side to the often-bleak science of economics by describing the personalities and social situation of the various characters in the story. This makes it easy to understand what was possibly behind their political beliefs and economic models. It also makes it easy to understand their views on issues like the motives of individuals, the motives of the wealthy, the role of labor and land in economic thought, and beliefs about the cause of imperialism. Models of production, consumption, and the distribution of wealth evolved with the growth of society and of political-economic systems supporting capitalism, socialism, and communism. This evolution of economic thought is best understood within the philosophical concept of Hegelian dialectics. Economic ideas changed because of synthesis of previous ideas challenged by new and opposing ideas that result in a new concept or synthesis, which is closer to the truth than the previous thoughts. This appears to be the approach used by many of the economic philosophers. It is also the approach used by Heilbroner to help pull the historical story together throughout his book.

Heilbroner clarifies or provokes thinking on a number of issues and questions that politicians and economists continue to debate and attempt to understand. First, he shines a light on the dichotomy between capitalism and socialism and drives thinking on where along the continuum societies have evolved. He also drives thinking on the interplay between economic models and the larger socio-political environment. This brings into question the impact of government and society on economic models and theories. Economic models are developed given assumptions about how citizens and governments behave under a given set of conditions. The thinking of citizens and governments evolve which could render established economic models relatively ineffective. For example, established economic thinking and models were changed by the industrial revolution. The current technological revolution and information age is again causing a rethink of economic assumptions. No one would have predicted the events of September 11, 2001 and the impact it had on the thinking of citizens and the U.S. government. Reading and thinking about the book's content also left me asking the question - do the fundamentals of economics as a science steer the direction of society or vice versa? Which has a greater influence on the other? This then also led me to ask the question - are economic models largely predictive or explanative?

While Heilbroner provided a comprehensive historical story of great economic thinkers, he left me wondering about who are the more recent economic thinkers. The book was last revised in 1998. However, there is no mention made of recent economists like Milton Friedman and John Kenneth Galbraith. According to the Economist, Friedman is the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th century and quite possibly all of it. Keynesian economic theory is discussed in detail, but Heilbroner did not discuss monetarist economic theory or Hayek's philosophy on neoliberalism.

In "The World Philosophers," Heilbroner provides a very accessible introduction to the history of economic thought. He uses clear prose to trace the ascendance of central economic theories, explaining the particular social contexts that helped shape the influential works of Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, as well as that of other "minor" figures.

However, those who wish to probe deeper into the development of economic thought may find this text inadequate. Heilbroner does not explain in detail the economic theories of the major figures, and devotes little space to those who some would call "lesser" figures, such as John Stuart Mill, Stanley Jevons, and Francis Edgeworth.

More than that, Heilbroner devotes only a few pages to Alfred Marshall, a seminal figure in the "marginal revolution," a movement that facilitated the rise of neoclassical economics. For those who desire a slightly more rigorous introduction to the history of economic thought, I would recommend "A History of Economic Thought" by William J. Barber.

That being said, Heilbroner's text is well worth reading for those new to either the history of economic thought or the discipline of economics in general.

While the book covers most of the early economists and John Maynard Keynes and those following in his footsteps, it leaves out Ludwig von Mises and Milton Friedman and it only mentions Friedrich Hayek 3 times in references to letters written to him. So as far as Heilbronner is concerned, Austrian Economics does not exist. He also admits that he leans toward Social Democracy and he glorifies Europe.

I read this book for a Microeconomics class that I took with Dr. Gertmenian at Pepperdine in California back in the late 1980s.

I enjoyed learning about this handful of powerful philosophers who helped shape economic theory. Some of their theories make good sense; other theories make no sense. There is some serious naïve thoughts about human nature.

The most fascinating person to me was Adam Smith and his thoughts about the free markets system. I especially enjoyed learning about his "Invisible hand theory." It essentially says that selfish businessmen will be good for the economy because of an "Invisible hand." It is sort of like the Trickle down Theory where as businesses grow they have to buy more good and services, and employ more people. Even though greed may be the reason for business to grow, the economic impact is frequently positive.

There are many interesting topics in the book. Just a few are: The Economic Revolution, The Visions of the Utopian Socialists, The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter and more. This is an excellent book to gain some insight into these early philosophers and their thoughts on economic thinking.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

"The Wordly Philosophers" is a classic text on the history of economic thought. It touches upon the lives and the ideas of Smith, Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, Marx, Veblen, Marshall, Keynes, Schumpeter and some other notable figures. Heilbroner pays as much attention to personal biographies and oddities as he does the broad economic visions of these thinkers. The end result is a very readable account on the developments in economic thought through the ages.

The market for books about economists and their ideas is pretty big compared to that of tomes dealing with other disciplines (try finding a book on classical sociologists and their ideas - not as easy). The fact that this book has held a dominant position for a very long time in such a context says something. In a way, buying this book is somewhat like buying a piece of history. As Paul Samuelson speculated, this book has doubtlessly inspired a lot of young economists.

In case you have already explored the history of economic thought, you will probably find little new here. You can find a more detailed treatment of the lives of Smith, Keynes, Schumpeter, and Marx in Jerry Muller's "The Mind and the Market". Duncan Foley's "Adam's Fallacy" covers some of the ideas of Smith and Ricardo in greater technical detail (in particular, their ideas with regard to value). However, if you are searching for a good introduction, this could be a very good choice.

In my 20th Century American Literature class we recently read Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." In conjunction with the book we watched "Roger and Me," a film by Michael Moore. The film chronicles the social collapse of Flint, Michigan, after General Motors closed several factories there in the late 1980's during a time of record profits. How ironic, then, that I should find myself reading a history of economics during a three-hour layover in an airport in Detroit, the Motor City.
I picked up a copy of Robert L. Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers for next to nothing at the Salvation Army. The cover suggests a retail price of a mere $..., a more significant sum back in 1961 when the revised edition was published. Heilbroner's book, however, is not weakened at all by its age. He sets out not to explicate his contemporary economy, but rather to recount the history of political economy by examining its greatest thinkers, beginning with Adam Smith and ending with John Maynard Keynes.
Before any of the biographies, however, there is a wonderful section on the origins of the market system. Heilbroner explains that until the 18th century, capitalism and the market system did not exist as we know them today. The lack of national unity and universal weights, measures, and currency made trade cumbersome. In addition to these impediments, the idea of seeking personal profit was not socially or religiously condoned. (Heilbroner cites an amusing case before the Boston courts in 1644 where a man was charged with making a "sixpence profit on the shilling, an outrageous gain.") Moreover, the economic concepts of Land, Labor, and Capital did not exist. Things began to shift radically in the 18th century, however, spurred along by the Industrial Revolution. As the free market system began to emerge, so did political economists. They form a most interesting pantheon: some pragmatic, some pure geniuses, nearly all eccentric in some way. ("One of them-who was very rich-urged the abolition of riches; another-quite poor-disapproved of charity.") Heilbroner humanizes these philosophers and paints a vivid picture of the worlds in which they lived. By providing such insightful biographical information he gives greater meaning to the economic theories espoused by each. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has an intellectual curiosity about economics but is discouraged at the thought of aggregate supply curves or equations like Sa+M+T = Ig+X+G. Heilbroner is able to explain the theories of Marx, Malthus, Keynes, and the rest in a purely theoretical, yet non-mathematical, way. I do not mean to suggest, however, that the book is a simplistic read. It has a scholarly (but entertaining) style and I found it quite handy to have a dictionary nearby. (Heilbroner graduated summa cum laude from Harvard.)
This book contains the perfect blend of economic theory, history, and intriguing biography. Perhaps none of these men directly swayed the fates of nations, but their collective school of thought could hardly be more influential throughout history. In the words of Heilbroner: "A man who thinks economics is only a matter for professors forgets that this is the science that has sent men to the barricades. A man who has looked into an economics textbook and concluded that economics is boring is like a man who has read a primer on logistics and decided that the study of warfare must be dull."

Whenever anyone says to me: I would like to learn something about economics, but where do I start - this is where you start. It is simple, easy, accurate, enjoyable and written for the lay reader. If you want to know more about economics this should be your first challenge. I guarantee after reading this book, you will know more and want to learn more. It could be the best introductory economics book ever. You can trust this guy.

Richard Edward Noble - The Hobo Philosopher - Author of:

"The Eastpointer" Selections from award winning column.