A History of Economic Thought

By William J. Barber

Book Overview

The theories and methods of such men as Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, J.S.Mill, Marx, Alfred Marshall and Keynes are often relevant to us today. In his analysis, the author assesses the thought of a number of important economists both in terms of the issues of their day and in relation to modern economic thought.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140136908
• ISBN13: 9780140136906
• Release Date: April 1977
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 5.0" x 1.0" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A classic.

The book is a general introduction to economic thought since Adam Smith, and is extremely enlightening. For instance, I learnt that the American Economic Association, in its founding statutes in 1920 was opposed to laissez-faire economics and Adam smith was a professor of moral philosophy who was committed to the social good (NOT to individual selfishness).The only problems I had with the book is that some vital information was not referenced to secondary sources - for example, Barber insisted that Smiths focus was on long term issues for the wealth of nations, and 2 hours of thumbing through the 2 volume 'wealth of nations' did not glean a hint of the text that was supposedly central to Smiths argument.The treatment of some (possibly all) economists was necessarily light, as one would expect when trying to cover all this material in a 260 page book,in particular Marx and Keynes seemed to suffer from an inadequate exploration of their ideas. However, for a general introduction, this book was great.Its great strength is the amount of information and historical background it covers in the contents of a small book. I recommend it - great for broadening ones education and understanding of the world and how it became the way it is.