Product Description

A very clear, reliable and readable history of economic thought from the ancient world to the present day. From Homer to Marx to John Stuart Mill, Backhouse shows how to keep your Keynsians from your post-Keynsians and New Keynsians. A core book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123887 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-31
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

About the Author
Professor of the History and Philosophy of Economics at the University of Birmingham, Backhouse is a leading historian of economics.

Customer Reviews

A Good Base
I will say that this is a really good overview for someone with an idea (but not much) of economics and contemporary economic ideas. If you already have a degree in economics (which I don't at present) then this book might be familiar ground adding little to your knowledge. However if you're trying to understand broad ideas so you can make sense of economic arguments then Backhouse's historical account will serve you well.

There are a lot of ideas covered so you may struggle if you're coming to the subject matter cold but then you can always go back over it. The historical period starts from ancient times and ends at the start of the 21st century so there's a lot packed in with all the major economists covered. The prose is very easy to read and I was engrossed throughout never feeling like this was a dull academic treatise. This book has helped explain the wide diversity in economic viewpoints that I have found in research papers. I have also come to see how econometrics has become such a huge part of modern economics. There is a brilliant chapter on how economists have split into different theoretical and applied disciplines and how they are influenced by the demands of academia (the need to publish, politics of getting promotion etc).

Good book.

Good to read after Heilbroner
This book is about the history of economic thought as such. It speaks of economic history and of the lives and thinking of major economists only in passing and where relevant to the exposition. As such its approach differs from that of Heilbroner's "The Worldly Philosophers" and Pressman's "Fifty Major Economists".

Compared with both of those books its historical coverage is wider, tracing the roots of economic thought back to Ancient Greece and thence to modern times. Particularly welcome is its chapter on economics in the Middle Ages, which is generally not well covered in texts of this kind. It is also cheering to see in that chapter mention of the contributions of Islamic philosophers.

Backhouse's prose lacks the sparkle of Heilbroner's. I wouldn't call it dull but it is essentially academic in style (not that I think this a criticism). On the other hand the book is IMO nicely paced and its perspective essentially as a history of ideas makes it a very useful complement to Heilbroner and Pressman whose books are more biographical in approach.

As a short paperback introduction to the evolution of economic thought it has grown on me ever since I read it and I would heartily recommend it to students - but *after* they have read Heilbroner and possibly Pressman.

a true history of economic thought
Heilbroner's "worldly philosophers' is indeed a hard act to follow. I loved the prose in that book and the style really inspires the reader. However, Backhouse should not be discounted just because his style does not seek to achieve the same aim.

What he lacks in poetry, Backhouse makes up for in clarity of prose, communicating very complex ideas in straightfoward language. He avoids the temptation, common to so many histories, to make it simply the history of great men (e.g. Adam Smith, Marx and Keynes) and focuses more on the evolution of ideas. In so doing, he proves that no idea is truly original, no revolution truly without precedent. So, if you truly want to come to grips with the ideas of economics themselves, then this is the book for you. Given the effort spent on ideas alone, you might lose track of the great storytelling you might be hoping to find.

Unlike New Ideas from Dead Economists, this book does not shy away from the complexities of the ideas involved. This makes it slightly less accessible for the newcomer to Economics but rewarding for those who will want to go back to it again and again. I read this book before taking my undergrad degree in Economics and still go back to it for its insights.

All in all, this is truly a well-written history of economic thought amongst many titles which merely claim to be.