Classical Economics Reconsidered

By Thomas Sowell

Book Overview

This reconsideration of the macroeconomics, microeconomics, methodology, and social philosophy of the classical economists has been a small gem on the history of economic thought, written in a way accessible to students, while having much to teach scholars. The reissue of this book twenty years after its original publication is a tribute to the enduring relevance of the questions raised during the formative period of economics and to the skill with which the author analyzes them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691003580
• ISBN13: 9780691003580
• Release Date: June 1977
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Slim, But Packed With Knowledge and Insight

This is not a long book. In fact, I believe you can buy this with "On Classical Economics" as it forms the first four chapters of that book. But it's a good one. It definitely requires a grounding in economics or you will quickly be in over your head with all of the jargon and concepts, and the more you are acquainted with classical economics the better. It helps to read Todd Bucholz' New Ideas From Dead Economists, which is a history of economic thought from Smith to Rational Expectations theory, and it doesn't hurt to read some classical economics. What makes this book important is how many myths it dispels about the classical economists and classical economics, and how it concisely lays out their differences. I gained a newfound respect for Malthus from this book, and my respect for Ricardo actually shrunk a tad. I was introduced to economists I'd never heard of but who made important contributions, I learned that the "labor theory of value" doesn't really mean what I thought it did (Sowell helped me out by pointing out Smith's inconsistencies, which are numerous in Wealth of Nations), and frankly I saw how many of the concepts in economics which I thought of as being marginalist, neoclassical, or otherwise post-classical, can indeed be found in the classical economists. So, for econ nerds, especially those of you who aren't as well-versed in classical economics as you should be, this is a great book, whose densely-packed insights belie the small number of pages.