Snapshot views of the major economists

books:


	• The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers [7th Edition] Robert L. Heilbroner Touchstone, 1999 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent introductory economic book

As an economics major in college, I found this to be the most interesting economics book I've read in the field and highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in business, economics, or history. It reads like a good novel as it covers each economist's thoughts and lives, and leads up to the present time. After my older copy wore out, I bought the newer edition. I was disappointed to hear that the author recently passed away, thereby making this the final edition (unless others revise it). Another interesting introductory book is "New Ideas from Dead Economists" which I would recommend after Robert Heilbroner's book.

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Snapshot views of the major economists

In the title to the review I mean to suggest that the book, in the jargon of the day, takes the dry subject of economics and presents information on the topic in an extremely reader-friendly fashion. In the introduction to the book the author notes that it was the result of a suggestion from a publisher friend of his and followed him, through various editions, his entire scholarly career. It was surprising to him that the book would be popular with readers.

In the market system there is the lure of gain, not dominance by authority or tradition. Custom and command are simple. Economists are needed to explain the market system. Land, labor, and capital are requisites of a market system. These are the elements of production. Enclosure laws in England were a sort of expropriation.

Adam Smith lectured at Glasgow on Moral Philosophy. In 1776 THE WEALTH OF NATIONS was published. Smith had an encyclopedic mind. The argument is full of detail and observation. Self-interest and competition form the laws of the market. Society had a problem of the unprofitable poor. Smith noted the gain derived from the specialization of labor. The markets were driven by the laws of accumulation and population. Smith believed the division of labor increased universal opulence. THE WEALTH OF NATIONS is a program for action, not a description of Utopia. Smith's doctrine leads to laissez faire. The great enemy to Smith's system is monopoly. Adam Smith shared the 18th century belief in the triumph of rationality. Smith anticipated Veblen. He was much more than just an economist.

Thomas Malthus wrote on the principles of population in 1798. The essay stated population could outstrip subsistence. David Ricardo wrote of the competition of the classes. Industrialists fought for cheap food to reduce the cost of labor. Malthus was the first professional economist. He urged the abolition of poor relief and moral restraint. For his efforts he was abused. His position was not hard-hearted, it was logical. Thinking on the population problem has always swung between poles of opinion. Malthus worried about the general glut of food--commodities without buyers. Malthus stumbled upon the problem of boom and depression.

England in the 1820's was gloomy. Robert Owen was responsible for New Lanark. At age twenty he became the boy wonder of the textile world. Owen had suggested the solution to poverty was to make the poort productive. Saint-Simon loved democracy. Charles Fourier lacked a program. Fourier was an adventurer in imagination. At one time there were over forty phalansteries in the U.S. The Utopian Socialists were economic reformers.

The greatest economist of the age was John Stuart Mill. Mill pointed out the true province of economic law was production, not distribution. Marx and Engles began to collaborate in 1844. They wrote a philosophy of history. The new theory was dialectical and materialist. They saw the base of industrial production was bound to clash with the superstructure of private property.

A quality of Thorstein Veblen was his alienation from society. He was a stranger and nonconformist. Following a PhD program at Yale, Veblen underwent seven years of isolation. Then he went to Cornell for a year and moved on to Chicago. Veblen's THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS was a sensation.

John Maynard Keynes had a Victorian boyhood. He flourished in his schooling at Eton and Cambridge. The cure for Depression, he asserted, was for the government to open the valve of public spending. Joseph Schumpeter, an Austrian, presented a static view of capitalism to determine the source of profits. He wrote of the impact of innovations. Contrary to Marx, Schumpeter stressed the bourgeois side of capitalism.

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Love the book, hate the propaganda

Hey, face it that Robert Heilbroner and his best friend Paul Samuelson (Nobel Laureate) are Leftists -- you don't get to be a professor at New York's New School and MIT (respectively) unless you're at least Left of center. So stop whining about the propagandistic aspects of this book. Just accept that Heilbroner was an actual socialist, thinks Socialism is a good start. [He admitted he was wrong upon observing the collapse of the Soviet Union, a 70-year experiment in Socialism.]

Now, you gotta admit he's got a handle on the language. Colorful, erudite, entertaining... a great read. And his historical facts about various economic theories are correct. I enjoyed it as a high school kid, and it didn't rot my mind too much to keep me from growing up to be a well informed, independent thinker. Gotta know all perspectives to make up your own mind, y'know.

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Not Impressed

It is hard to believe that this book is in its 7th edition. Either economic theory either is seriously lacking or this book simply is not good. First, it begins with the false premise that economics does not begin until the modern age, when Tradition and Command are losing influence. To argue that Traditional and Command economies are not worthy of economic analysis is simply absurd. Arisotle's Politics (which the author quotes out of context) gives several economic insights that shadow what most of the "modern" theorists have to offer. Economics is about the human instinct to seek out the necessary resources for survival (consumption) in a world where a lack of sufficient instincts leaves us bare and exposed. Second, it begins with the assumption that the profit incentive has been lacking until modern times, another absurd claim. The author acknowledges that Kings have always sought profits (which discredits his claim), but it apparently never occured to the author that 1. the masses were taught to accept their lot in life, and 2. proper nutrition and other facter woke the masses from their slumber (that is, accepting one's lot in life is the result of privation, not of moral goodness). The author tosses about other assumptions, such as the notion that "equality" and "wealth distribution" should be the goal of an economy, with a predictable attack on the "rober barrons," to set the stage for his attack on greed. In short, the author begs the question by assuming the very things in need of verification, all in an attempt to let out one last gasp of the socialist's dying quest for recognition. (The socialist dream rests on and depends on the achievements of capitalists; that is, it is a parasitic philosophy.) Granted, I am a firm believer in social planning and oversight, in the classical conservative sense of the word, but this book, while good, is simply too biased and loaded with false assumptions to rise to the level of five stars.

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A Great Introduction to Economics

Robert Heilbroner has accomplished his mission in writing a book making the major economic theories in human history easily understandable. He writes in a very engaging style about the life and times as well as the socio economic history of the times of some of the most important economists throughout history. His useful insights into these men's lives and the world around them is essential in understanding why they developed their economic theories such as; capitalism, communism, socialism and a command economy. Heilbroner deftly brings these concepts to light using easy to understand examples to explain difficult concepts. He also provides a very useful bibliography for those who would like to delve deeper into economics.

Now, why should anybody not particularly interested in economics want to understand it? Simple, first if you want a good classical liberal arts education you must understand economics to understand such subjects as; politics, sociology, psychology, science, etc., you get the drift. So much of our lives revolve around economics and most people have a very poor understanding of the subject. People vote for political leaders to represent them and pass laws that will affect their everyday existence and most people could not articulate the economic principles that their candidate stands for.

I recommend this book for beginning students as a great text to learn the key concepts of economics. Anyone interested in philosophy, history or politics wanting to start educating themselves in economics will find this book a great place to start.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

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