Book Description
In this, the first comprehensive one-volume survey of the economies of classical antiquity, twenty-eight chapters summarise the current state of scholarship in their specialised fields and sketch new directions for research. The approach taken is both thematic, with chapters on the underlying determinants of economic performance, and chronological, with coverage of the whole of the Greek and Roman worlds extending from the Aegean Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. The contributors move beyond the substantivist-formalist debates that dominated twentieth-century scholarship and display a new interest in economic growth in antiquity. New methods for measuring economic development are developed, often combining textual and archaeological data that have previously been treated separately. This important work represents a major advance in our understanding of the economic expansion that made the civilisation of the classical Mediterranean world possible. ... Read more

Book Description
The Wealth of Ideas traces the history of economic thought, from its prehistory (the Bible, Classical antiquity) to the present day. In this eloquently written, scientifically rigorous and well documented book, chapters on William Petty, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, William Stanley Jevons, Carl Menger, Léon Walras, Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter and Piero Sraffa alternate with chapters on other important figures and on debates of the period. Economic thought is seen as developing between two opposite poles: a subjective one, based on the ideas of scarcity and utility, and an objective one based on the notions of physical costs and surplus. Professor Roncaglia focuses on the different views of the economy and society and on their evolution over time and critically evaluates the foundations of the scarcity-utility approach in comparison with the Classical/Keynesian approach. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book
Simply the better book in history of the economic thought. Advised to anyone it wants to know the evolution of the neoclassic thought and the sraffian critic. Warning: the approach is heterodox. ... Read more

Book Description
One of the first U.S. economic history books on the market, this classic text ties America’s past to the economic policies and debates of today and beyond. Presenting economic events chronologically for ease of understanding and to provide continuity, the authors equip students with a firm foundation in the evolution of American economic history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

best on the subject
This is definitely the best introductory book there is on the subject. This was a supplemental book for an undergraduate class of mine, but I read it anyway. The authors lucid writing allows this book to be thoroughly understood by all readers despite their backround in economics. I truly believe that this book should be required reading for all history, political science, finance, sociology, and economics majors.

Unlike most books on the history of anything, this book starts from the beginning. The authors start off discussing explorers and empires and then go into colonization. Extremely informative on the economics of different regions in colonial America and the Industrial Revolution.

Rockoff is the greatest American Historian ever.
Rockoff gives a brilliant account of the history of the American Economy and is possibly the best American economic historian in US history. ... Read more

Book Description
This book brings together in one volume the four studies on British population history already published in the series New Studies in Economic and Social History, and adds to them a new essay on British population in the twentieth century. The book provides the only single volume survey of trends in English population history from the medieval period to the present day. The studies are written in a nontechnical style, and are aimed at students and teachers who wish to familiarize themselves with the main issues and debates. Full bibliographiesfor further study are included. ... Read more

Book Description

Lionel Robbins's now famous lectures on the history of economic thought comprise one of the greatest accounts since World War II of the evolution of economic ideas. This volume represents the first time those lectures have been published.

Lord Robbins (1898-1984) was a remarkably accomplished thinker, writer, and public figure. He made important contributions to economic theory, methodology, and policy analysis, directed the economic section of Winston Churchill's War Cabinet, and served as chairman of the Financial Times. As a historian of economic ideas, he ranks with Joseph Schumpeter and Jacob Viner as one of the foremost scholars of the century. These lectures, delivered at the London School of Economics between 1979 and 1981 and tape-recorded by Robbins's grandson, display his mastery of the intellectual history of economics, his infectious enthusiasm for the subject, and his eloquence and incisive wit. They cover a broad chronological range, beginning with Plato, Aristotle, and Aquinas, focusing extensively on Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus and the classicals, and finishing with a discussion of moderns and marginalists from Marx to Alfred Marshall. Robbins takes a varied and inclusive approach to intellectual history. As he says in his first lecture: "I shall go my own sweet way--sometimes talk about doctrine, sometimes talk about persons, sometimes talk about periods." The lectures are united by Robbins's conviction that it is impossible to understand adequately contemporary institutions and social sciences without understanding the ideas behind their development.

Authoritative yet accessible, combining the immediacy of the spoken word with Robbins's exceptional talent for clear, well-organized exposition, this volume will be welcomed by anyone interested in the intellectual origins of the modern world.

Customer Reviews (6)

Transcription of Robbins lectures lack some depth
The book is the transcription of the lectures Lionel Robbins gave in the London School of Economics during 1979 on the History of Economic Thought. The material covered goes from Plato to Fisher (very few developments from the 20th century are included). Since the book is verbatim transcripts of the lectures, there is not much depth here. Therefore, a conventional book by Robbins on the subject would have been preferred (that he knew the subject, there can be no questions of). Also, the coverage varies: there is ample stuff on Smith and the early mercantilists, but the material on Marx and Walras, for example, is frustratingly short. Still, for those starting in the subject, this is an OK read.

A quick walk through the history of Economics.
This series of lectures sheds light on the major contributors to Economic thought since Plato and Aristotle. Since the book is made up of transcripts of his lectures, he doesn't manage to cover the figures or the ideas in depth. However he does manage to give some guidelines as to what you should read if you want to be well informed on the history of Economic thought.

I did not find the language in it frustrating, it just made the book seem like a personal lecture with Robbins (minus the questions) which added to my enjoyment. He stops at Fisher, so if you were hoping for ideas and icons after that, you will be disappointed.

The book is split into five sections. The first deals with those philosophers that preceded the formal study of economics; Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas etc... Very interesting stuff, especially if you aren't familiar with the relationship between the ancients and economics.

The second to the fourth sections deal with famous economists, from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. His treatment of Marx is brief so don't expect anything more than a few pages. While he goes into some length about Adam Smith and the other classical economists.

Finally he lectures on Jevons, Menger and others of the "Marginal Revolution", ending his series of lectures with Fisher.

A good read, I would recommend it to undergraduates in Economics or any one else who is interested in the history of economic ideas.

Lectures
This is a collection of lectures given at the LSE.So DON'T think it is a history.Nevertheless, it is a comprehensive journey from aristotle's economica thru the modern era.Good as a reference.Not bad as a read -- but be aware you are reading a transcribed lecture and adjust your expectations accordingly.

Outstanding summary of economic thought!
A well-organized and well-considered series of concise lectures are codified in this book.This is a substantial, but not overwhelming, chronology of the more influential contributors to economic history and thought.

Magisterial, fair, but not the best way
Make no mistake: Robbins knows his stuff, he's fair, correct, and surprisingly open-minded.However, this is a transcription of lectures, and the syntax is contorted.He interrupts the flow of every other sentence to insert some qualifier or oral footnote, and the effect can be maddening.This is too much to read for the depth of treatment you will actually get.If you do read it, you will get a pretty swell reading list, but the material is definitely weighted in favor of antiquarian literature and ancient disputes. I personally found it a pleasant read, because I like old books and economics, and I felt a certain affection for the grand old man, but unless you share these tastes, you're bound to be frustrated ... Read more

Book Description
This is a unique, comprehensive and international history of the post Keynesian approach to economics since 1936. The author locates the origins of post Keynesian economics in the conflicting initial interpretations of Keynes's General Theory and in the complementary work of Michal Kalecki.

The book, now available in paperback, begins by focusing on Cambridge Growth, Distribution and Capital theory and early post Keynesian thought in the US. The failure of post Keynesian theory to supplant the neo-classical paradigm in the 1970s is also discussed, along with an overview of post Keynesian thinking in other countries. The book then deals with the search for coherence between various strands of post Keynesian thought and other schools of economic thought. The author concludes by assessing the progress made by post Keynesian economics since 1936 and considers several possible alternative futures for the post Keynesians.

Historians of economic thought as well as post Keynesian and other heterodox economists will warmly welcome A History of Post Keynesian Economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Founding of the PK school occurred in 1954-1956
King's history of Post Keynesian(PK) Economics gives a general overview of the founding of a distinct PK view.A distinct PK school is traced backby King to two individuals,J M Keynes and M Kalecki.King covers the claim made,according to one of the founding PKers,by Joan Robinson, that Kalecki had written a superior,mathematical version of the theory of effective demand three years(1933) before Keynes wrote his supposedly strictly literary analysis in the General Theory(GT) in 1936.These claims ,as King shows,have led to the fracturing of thePK school.King also covers the capital theory controversies between Cambridge,Massachusetts(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)and Cambridge,England(Cambridge University)over the roles played by the rate of interest and theoretical neoclassical production functions in capital reswitching .The mainconclusion that a reader will come to is that the disparate and disputing subschools that make up the PK school have absolutely no clue as to how Keynes arrived at the conclusions he did since they accept the canard put out by Richard Kahn that Keynes was a poor mathematician since 1927.Various assorted PKers,such as Lorie Tarshis and G C Harcourt,have contributed mightily to the "What did Keynes really mean if we assume that he was rational?"debate,a debate which only calls into question the basic coherence of the PK school.This has naturally led to a chaotic situation.Unfortunately,King(K)lacks the mathematical skills(basic differential and integral calculus) needed to work out the technical analysis that John Maynard Keynes provided in chapters 10,20,21, and the appendix to chapter 19 of the GT, in order to rectify the situation.An understanding of the technical analysis worked out by A C Pigou in chapters 8-10,pp.86-102,Part II,of The Theory of Unemployment(1933)is a necessary prerequisite needed in order to understand the comparison-contrast that Keynesmade in the appendix to chapter 19 of the GT between his model and Pigou's model.A reader who has covered the above mentioned chapters will be in a good position to discover that PK economics is essentially based on the 1954-1956 error filled Economic Journal exchange over Keynes's aggregate supply function carried on by Dennis Robertson,Ralph Hawtrey,de Jong,and Harry Johnson,who wrote an error filled mathematical appendix for Robertson,who was a self admitted mathematical illiterate.Three of the main founding fathers of PK economics,Sydney Weintraub,Douglas Vickers and Paul Davidson,simply adapted the Dennis Robertson-Harry Johnson case"iii-(a)"as their own.Unfortunately,the Robertson-Johnson model, in their case iii-a, contains three errors.The first error is that the expected aggregate supply function Z=g(N)=pO.On the contrary,Keynes defined ,in chapter 20,that his expected aggregate demand function D=pO,where p is an expected price and O=F(N) is an aggregate production function defined as such by Keynes on p.283 of the GT.Keynes's expected aggregate supply function is correctly specified as Z=P+wN,where P is defined by Keynes to stand for expected or future economic profit,w is a fixed or variable money wage,and N equals total aggregate employment.This result is easily obtained from pp.23-25 of the GT or by integrating the derivative specified by Keynes on pp.55-56,ft.2 or by integrating the derivatives specified by Keynes on pp.282-286 of the GT.The second error is the Robertson-Johnson claim that D=C+I.In chapters 5,6 and 10,Keynes specifies that Y=C+I.On page 209,Keynes further specifies that Y=PO,where,in the context of the Y-multiplier model of chapter 10,Y equals actual aggregate demand and P equals the actual price level.The third error is setting Z=pO=D=C+I,since the LHS is denominated in expected units while the RHS is denominated in actual units.Keynes's correct specification is D=pO=Z=P+wN.Both sides are correctly denominated in expected units.D=Z then specifies Keynes's aggregate supply curve,which is a locus of all possible pairs of expected prices and expected profits.The actual result,Y,will pick out one member of the set defined by D=Z.If mpc+mpi=1,there will be no involuntary unemployment(mpc equals the marginal propensity to spend on consumption goods while mpi equals the marginal propensity to spend on investment goods).If mpc+mpi<=1,some level of involuntary unemployment is present in the macroeconomy.All PKers accept and work with the mathematically incorrect and incoherent models of Davidson,Weintraub,and Vickers.The mathematical errors and misspecifications in their own models are the reason why the PKers have failed in their challenge to the orthodox schools of economics since 1960. ... Read more

Book Description
A radically new interpretation, offering a unified explanation for the growth of Western Europe between 900 A. D. and 1700, provides a general theoretical framework for institutional change geared to the general reader. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Not bad
Some great insights into the origins of property rights and how they relate to today's world.Well written, but tedious at times.

Less Than Advertised
This is a classic statement of the economic "institutionalist" explanation for Western dominance of the world.The North/Thomas argument is essentially that Western Europe/North America developed a set of economically efficient institutions that promoted economic producitivity growth, institutional innovation, and technological innovation.These institutions are free markets and specific forms of property rights, legal and political systems that favor market stability and security of property, and government fiscal policies that provide government with enough resources to protect market stability and property rights.Government fiscal and political policies cannot, however, undermine market forces and property rights.

North and Thomas present a concise but well done overview of European economic history from 900 - 1700 AD to support their hypothesis.The gist of their case is that a pair of nations that developed these institutions, Holland and England, developed productive and expanding economies.Those nations that did not; France, Spain, etc., either stagnated or actually declined.The development of these institutions is shown to be a contingent and essentially fortunate process.Up to this point, I think that North and Thomas make a very good case, though there may be other crucial strictly non-economic factors.Holland and England were both, for example, relatively tolerant Protestant countries.

Does this argument, however, explain The Rise of the Western World of their title?Probably not.North and Thomas have made a good argument to explain how Holland and England developed more dynamic economies than their European competitors.But does this explain the subsequent Industrial Revolution that really made possible the Western conquest of the globe?The North and Thomas story terminates at 1700, before the Industrial Revolution.Its a reasonable hypothesis that the same institutions that drove economic success in Holland and Britain contributed to the Industrial Revolution, but the most you can argue on the basis of the North/Thomas thesis is that these institutions were necessary for industrialization.They present no arguments to prove that these institutions were both necessary and sufficient to drive the Industrial Revolution.

Substantial recent scholarship like Pomeranz's The Great Divergence has argued that 18th century Qing China and 18th century Europe were economically much more similar than believed previously.Yet, the Industrial Revolution arose in Europe, not in China.To date, no one has provided a convincing explanation.

A Liberal Analysis of Modernity?
North and Thomas seek to explain the "rise of the Western world" by illuminating the causal importance of an efficient economic organization that guarantees a wide latitude of property rights and both incentives and protection for economic growth.Although they pay homage to both Marxian and neoliberal theory, they take a theoretical middle ground that privileges the sociopolitical backdrop of economic affairs (as opposed to solely private or class-based activity) and in doing so identifies the roots of modernization as far back as the 10th Century.To justify the novelty and originality of this approach, they write that most analysts have misidentified the symptoms of modern economic growth (technological change, human capital, economies of scale) as the causes.In doing so, previous scholars have failed to answer the question "if all that is required for economic growth is investment and innovation, why have some societies missed this desirable outcome?" (2).Their answer is that some societies (England and the Netherlands) were better than others (France and Spain) at providing an efficient economic organization that could guarantee conditions favorable to per capita economic growth among a rapidly growing population.

These conditions are conceptualized as mechanisms to reduce the gap between "social" and "private" rates of return, the key operating concepts in the analysis.Indeed, any old economic undertaking can provide private gains, but the "social" costs or benefits of this undertaking will affect the society's well-being, and a given discrepancy between the two rates of return means that a third party will absorb benefits or costs of this undertaking (an example would be the lack of intellectual property rights for inventions, leading to copying and piracy by third parties).A lack of strong property rights gives these third parties the institutional incentive or imperative to absorb social costs or benefits, and if private costs exceed private benefits then no rational chooser would ever undertake any risky new private economic activity (trade, inventions, investment, etc.).In a sense, then, the analysis becomes a refreshing neoliberal justification for strong government power.

Population growth serves as a convenient control variable for this analysis, because by holding population growth constant across all the countries concerned, the authors are able to pinpoint their causal variable (parity between private and social rates of return) in the cases where it spurred the rise of capitalism (England and the Netherlands).Population growth serves as a control because the authors show that the rise of the Western World happened only after the second population boom in the period being studied (16th Century) - the fact that it didn't happen during the first population boom (10th through 13th Centuries) means that population growth alone cannot be seen as accountable for modernity.But how did the two population booms differ from each other?Only during the second one were England and the Netherlands able to provide per capita growth by providing a climate of incentives and protections (rule of law, property rights, insurance companies, joint stock companies, etc.) that reduced the gap between private and social returns and laid the groundwork for the industrial revolution to begin.

The evidence provided to back up this causal argument comes in two primary forms:citations of historical scholarship (often quoting large passages out of encyclopedias) that are given a "new" economic spin, and a great deal of quantitative evidence, in the form of graphs and charts, to verify the cycles of population growth and economic growth and recession being identified.The authors admit that the quality of statistical data from the early period under study is rather dubious, but if one can grant the integrity of the historians that uncovered such incomplete and partial data then one can probably take this data as high-quality evidence of the trends being identified.

The authors are intentionally ambiguous about their theoretical implications.Clearly, they seek to refute Marx by showing that technological change alone could not have been the cause of capitalist development, since this change itself was a symptom of both population growth and a favorable institutional climate (what Marx would dismiss as the superstructure).However, it's not clear how much they wish to refute neoliberal theory, since they follow much of its logic regarding the role of incentives in economic growth.They admit that Adam Smith himself went too far in his laissez-faire beliefs, since a weak state would not be able to provide the kinds of efficient economic organization that our authors advocate.But their analysis does not clarify just how strong of a state is required for such organization, especially in the information age economy.

An Examination of Property Rights
An outstanding book that clearly explains how `our' current understanding of property rights can be found and more fully understood through the feudal history of western Europe.The breath and sweep of this book is truly impressive. The roots of how nations protect property rights are found in western feudal history.The case is made that economic efficiency, or more specifically economic prosperity, is dependent upon how a society defines and protects property rights.Therefore, differences in economic performance among nations can be in part explained by how that particular nation's notion of property rights evolved. North and Thomas compare and contrast the development of property rights and the resulting economic performance during the feudal period in several nations, such as France and England, to make their point.Transaction costs, intellectual property, and negative and positive externalities are also discussed.

First-Rate, But Not For Amateurs
I read this excellent book in preparation for the writing of my senior thesis.It is the most thorough and comprehensive tretment of the economic reasons for the rise of the western world.Every sentence is informationdense, and I often found it necessary to reread sentences or even wholeparagraphs to digest the wealth of information and analysis.That said, itshould be kept in mind that firm backgrounds in both European history andeconomics are necessary prerequisites for a full appreciation of this book. Moreover, this book is a crucial but nevertheless incomplete explanationfor the rise of the western world.In this sense, it has everything onsomething (economic history), but nothing on anything else.For a broaderanalysis, see McNeill, "The Rise of the West."(McNeill hassomething on everything, but everything on nothing.Get it?) ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

A very thought-provoking tome.
A very revealingcomparative look at 18th century Latin American economic history and specifically Brazil's and Mexico's.The authors reject the traditional dependency explanation and instead explore the issue with amethodology grounded firmly in empiricism and neo-classical economictheory.Thoroughly researched (primary research predominates), theauthors' conclusions, in total, are quite compelling. ... Read more

Book Description

The Big Problem of Small Change offers the first credible and analytically sound explanation of how a problem that dogged monetary authorities for hundreds of years was finally solved. Two leading economists, Thomas Sargent and François Velde, examine the evolution of Western European economies through the lens of one of the classic problems of monetary history--the recurring scarcity and depreciation of small change. Through penetrating and clearly worded analysis, they tell the story of how monetary technologies, doctrines, and practices evolved from 1300 to 1850; of how the "standard formula" was devised to address an age-old dilemma without causing inflation.

One big problem had long plagued commodity money (that is, money literally worth its weight in gold): governments were hard-pressed to provide a steady supply of small change because of its high costs of production. The ensuing shortages hampered trade and, paradoxically, resulted in inflation and depreciation of small change. After centuries of technological progress that limited counterfeiting, in the nineteenth century governments replaced the small change in use until then with fiat money (money not literally equal to the value claimed for it)--ensuring a secure flow of small change. But this was not all. By solving this problem, suggest Sargent and Velde, modern European states laid the intellectual and practical basis for the diverse forms of money that make the world go round today.

This keenly argued, richly imaginative, and attractively illustrated study presents a comprehensive history and theory of small change. The authors skillfully convey the intuition that underlies their rigorous analysis. All those intrigued by monetary history will recognize this book for the standard that it is.

Customer Reviews (2)

Interesting Historical Background
Great look at the history of economics in practice.There is a great chapter about the Castilian experiment on silver and copper currency.It provides great insight and really made me think more about our economics today.Only one complaint: I wish they could've also done a study of the Chinese fiat money currency.

Highly Recommended!
Authors Thomas J. Sargent and François R. Velde offer a fascinating work of scholarship that studies the history of coinage in broad scope and depth. They dwell on a problem that is no longer a problem: the set value of coins. Internationally, consumers take it for granted that so many units of small change equal a larger unit of money. A U.S. shopper never wonders if 100 pennies could be worth more or less than a dollar. But during most of history, the value of small change was a vexing economic conundrum. The authors explore the evolution of the monetary system from Roman times, taking a circuitous and rambling path that touches on many subjects, from sieges to papal speculations. Regrettably, this book may be inaccessible to readers without a firm grounding in economic history and some comfort with higher math since the authors are scholars and assume that you are, too. Nonetheless, we recommend this sweeping book to anyone whose curiosity is piqued by this précis. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Impressive work!
Pirenne's book first appeared in print in 1933, so I have to admit I was a little leery about reading it even though I have an interest in feudal economics.I was concerned that it would be a stuffy tome that was written in a dense and archaic academic style.To my surprise, this book is an extraordinarily good read, most interesting, and very informative.And unlike many books on this subject, a casual reader can be assured that a master's level background on the subject is not necessary to read this book.

Picking up at the end of the Roman Empire and running through approximately the middle 1500s, Pirenne tackles the full spectrum of economic and sociological issues as they evolved throughout the Middle Ages in Europe.Specifically, he relates how commerce was revived after the break-up of the economic and cultural stability that existed in the ancient world.Concepts such as the re-issuance of a currency, the rebirth of a money economy, rediscovery of credit, and how urban industry developed are covered and explained in detail.This is a very complete picture of economic and sociological circumstances that existed during the middle ages, as you are likely to see.

Pirenne takes the reader on a journey that attempts to plug the Medieval Period knowledge gap with a detailed explanation of economic development.Geographically (and culturally) he is able to discuss developments throughout all of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the North Sea.If you are interested in learning more about conditions in Europe during the Middle Ages and want a fuller understand of how the western economic system developed, pick up this book

Masterful explanation of Economics during the Middle Ages
Pirenne's book first appeared in print in 1933, so I have to admit I was a little leery about reading it even though I have an interest in feudal economics.I was concerned that it would be a stuffy tome that was written in a dense and archaic academic style.To my surprise, this book is an extraordinarily good read, most interesting, and very informative.And unlike many books on this subject, a casual reader can be assured that a master's level background on the subject is not necessary to read this book.

Picking up at the end of the Roman Empire and running through approximately the middle 1500s, Pirenne tackles the full spectrum of economic and sociological issues as they evolved throughout the Middle Ages in Europe.Specifically, he relates how commerce was revived after the break-up of the economic and cultural stability that existed in the ancient world.Concepts such as the re-issuance of a currency, the rebirth of a money economy, rediscovery of credit, and how urban industry developed are covered and explained in detail.This is a very complete picture of economic and sociological circumstances that existed during the middle ages as you are likely to see.

Pirenne takes the reader on a journey that attempts to plug the Medieval Period knowledge gap with a detailed explanation of economic development.Geographically (and culturally) he is able to discuss developments throughout all of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the North Sea.If you are interested in learning more about conditions in Europe during the Middle Ages and want a fuller understand of how the western economic system developed, pick up this book

Outstanding history of the Middle Ages Revising Assumptions
This wonderfully readable book provides, in a little more than 200 pages no less, a concise summary of economic development and social history during the much derided, abused and forgotten Middle Ages and also summarizes Pirenne's radical views about the real cause of the Dark Ages (he proposes that the Arab Conquest of the Mediterranean basin and Spain and not the Germanic invasions caused the collapse of European Civilization).He also explores, in outline, the general economic rise of Europe after the year 1000, culminating in medieval high point of the mid-Fourteenth Century and the sort of stability that lasted from that period (1350) until the Age of Exploration began and radically altered everything again.It was in the Low Countries and Italy that "capitalism" and the first industrial revolution really began and Pirenne shows how and why this occurred.

In this day and age where most people's image of the Middle Ages, if they have one, is based on movies like Kevin Costner's godawful "Robin Hood" and the fun, but totally make-believe, "A Knight's Tale" this book sets forth, concisely, the fascinating complexity of the age that established Christianity as the faith of Europe and the political-social system that ruled 3/4s of the Earth's surface until 1918 and whose vestiges we can still see in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, et al.

Educated people have taken Gibbon's dismissive derision of the Middle Ages as a period of nothing but violence, superstition and stagnation.Pirenne demolishes Gibbon's amazingly shallow view with a wealth of detail and vivid, easily readable narrative.Although not the masterpiece of literature that Gibbon produced, this volume avoids the joyful boredom that so many writers of economic history seem to delight in inflicting upon their readers.

The translation from the French by I.E. Clegg is smooth and idiomatic. Pirenne, who apparently spoke English fluently, helped to prepare the translation.

The only irritating part of the book is the presence of several large blocks of untranslated Latin and Old French.Given the general ignorance of Latin (and I am one of the ignorant, I am ashamed to say), Clegg or Pirenne should have translated it for the benefit of the Latinless.Although I read French with some ability, the Old French (pre-1300) uses spellings and some words that I simply can't understand.Modern French dictionaries are useless. Harcourt-Brace should find some present-day academic to "edit" a new edition and translate these passages!A smoother typeface than the ancient "Times-Roman" would also be nice.

All in all, if you have any interest in medieval history (especially if you are of European descent) or wish to understand how the market system of economics took form, I highly, highly recommend this book!

Interesting Reading!
Normally I'm don't read much history...but this book really was very interesting. The way it is written is timeless, very intelligent, informative, and enjoyable! If you like medieval history, you will enjoythis. ... Read more

Book Description

Since the early days of the American republic, political thinkers have maintained that a grossly unequal division of property, wealth, and power would lead to the erosion of democratic life. Yet over the past thirty-five years, neoconservatives and neoliberals alike have redrawn the tenets of American liberalism. Nowhere is this more evident than in our current mainstream political discourse, in which the politics of economic inequality are rarely discussed.

In this impassioned book, Michael J. Thompson reaches back into America's rich intellectual history to reclaim the politics of inequality from the distortion of recent American conservatism. He begins by tracing the development of the idea of economic inequality as it has been conceived by political thinkers throughout American history. Then he considers the change in ideas and values that have led to the acceptance and occasional legitimization of economic divisions. Thompson argues that American liberalism has made a profound departure from its original practice of egalitarian critique. It has all but abandoned its antihierarchical and antiaristocratic discourse. Only by resuscitating this tradition can democracy again become meaningful to Americans.

The intellectuals who pioneered egalitarian thinking in America believed political and social relations should be free from all forms of domination, servitude, and dependency. They wished to expose the antidemocratic character of economic life under capitalism and hoped to prevent the kind of inequalities that compromise human dignity and freedom-the core principles of early American politics. In their wisdom is a much broader, more compelling view of democratic life and community than we have today, and with this book, Thompson eloquently and adamantly fights to recover this crucial strand of political thought.

Book Description
In his stunning memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins detailed his former role as an "economic hit man" in the international corporate skulduggery of a de facto American Empire. Now Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world, drawing on interviews to examine the current geopolitical crisis, and providing a compassionate plan to reimagine our world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE proves especially eye-opening in a vivid audio listen
New York actor Jonathan Davis lends a fine voice seasoned well by onstage productions to The Secret History of the American Empire, a survey of the world's hot spots which use interviews with hit men, CIA operatives, reporters and activists alike to consider the evolution of instability in the world and how American concerns are addressing it - or not. From Iraq to Asia, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE proves especially eye-opening in a vivid audio listen libraries will find a popular lend.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

Book Description
At the time of his death in 1950, Joseph Schumpeter--one of the great economists of the first half of the 20th century--was working on his monumental History of Economic Analysis. A complete history of efforts to understand the subject of economics from ancient Greece to the present, this book is an important contribution to the history of ideas as well as to economics. Although never fully completed, it has gained recognition as a modern classic due to its broad scope and original examination of significant historical events. Complete with anew introduction by Mark Perlman, who outlines the structure of the book and puts Schumpeters work into current perspective, History of Economic Analysis remains a reflection ofSchumpeters diverse interests in history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology.Major topics include the techniques of economic analysis, contemporaneous developments in other sciences, and the sociology of economics; economic writings from Plato and Aristotle up through the time of Adam Smith, including the medieval scholastics and natural-law philosophers; the work of Malthus, Mill, Ricardo, Marx, and the important European economists; the history, sociology, psychology, and economics of the period 1879-1914; and modern economic developments. Schumpeter perceived economics as a human science, and this lucid and insightful volume reflects that perception, creating a work that is of major importance to the history of economics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Economics for adults
This book is one of the greats. Written by a master of economic theory, it reflects his learning and insight. But have no mistake, Schumpeter expects you to meet him half-way, so if you like to be spoon-fed and prefer pictures to words, this is not the book for you. The book needs to be read together with the original material: Schumpeter is not a substitute for, but a guide to the material he writes about. To criticise this book for not being light reading is simply to misunderstand this: to understand important thoughts requires some thinking and if you are not prepared to do the work, you shouldn't fool with this book. While Blaug's book is a decent solid survey, the only work which begins to rival Schumpeter's in erudition and incisiveness is Marx's Theories of Surplus-Value, which covers a narrower period. If you respect this book and *really* study it, the effort repays handsomely. Enjoy!

The beginnings of economic concepts in full detail
The objective of Schumpeter, one of the greatest economists of all times, is to portray in a very comprehensive detail, all the philosophical thinking that conduced to contemporary Economic Analisys, since the beginning of the ancient greek thought.

To me, that had a very great misconception about the works of Joseph Alois Schumpeter, this book was a revelation, be it for the immensity of his erudiction both as an historian, philosopher and economist, be it for the ingenuity in which he presents many new ideas and perspectives regarding economic analisys.

He is sometimes difficult to follow, not helped by the many and extensive footnotes he appends the book with, and by the many quotations he does in foreign languages, which he usually do not translate, be it in ancient Greek, Latin , French or German. Also , the book was unfinished in his lifetime and had to be edited by his wife, who was also deceased before the full completion of the giantic task. Even so, the book has some 1.300 pages and covers the full range of all the relevant economic thougth until the time of its publication.

A warning sign of caution must be addressed to the non-professional readers not not fully interested in the magnitude of such a scope, that is, of addressing the formative ideas of each and every important concept in economic analisys in a so complete way. This can be an overkill for you. But if you are interested in Medieval thought, the concepts exposed by , for instance, Saint Thomas and many others, this is a very good reading. Enjoy it

Complex and Sophisticated History of Economic Theory
The legendary History of Economic Analysis is without a doubt one of the greatest books of economic history ever written, but one should examine what kind of reading they're looking for before he or she embarks on this thousand page text. Schumpeter's unfinished history is divided into sections by ideology and time-period which is particularly useful but once you penetrate the well-organized table of contents, the writing becomes arcane and complex.

For a reader well-grounded in economic theory and history, I am sure that this is a bible; but for a curious reader interested in the history of economics (in a more political as opposed to theoretical perspective) this book may not be right. Highly footnoted and not very smooth writing, as well as obscure references to economists and theories results in a history that is very demanding of the reader. If you are looking for an economic history text that reads like From Dawn to Decadence you may be seriously disappointed, as I had been, but if you are a serious student of economics and are willing to spend the time to deliberate over Schumpeter's words then History of Economic Analysis is right for you.

THE masterpiece in history of economic thought
After the considerable success of his then only in germanpublished Little Sketch of Doctrines and Methods, and while he wasteaching at Harvard, Schumpeter started working on a book wich would cover the ground of Little Sketch an beyond. What began just as leisure would become THE masterpiece in History of Economic Thought. Schumpeter spent ten years in this colossal effort and unfortunately did not finish it before his death. Nevertheless, nowhere else you will find a book more powerful and more profound on this theme. By History of Economic Analysis Schumpeter means the history of efforts made in the pursuit of comprehending economic phenomena, from Antiquity to present; not a book on history of ideologies. Schumpeter places the authors in their times and contexts, and tries to understand how they proceeded in analysing economic reality. A must for anyone interested in economic theory, history and philosophy. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Survey that Begs for a Revised Edition
Arndt traces the origins of the term "economic development" and the change in its dominant meanings from ones dealing primarily with economic growth to those dealing with social equity/justice.Two of the last three chapters outline the critiques of the "left" (i.e. dependency theorists and neo-Marxists) and the "right" (i.e. Westerners skeptical of developing countries' capacities for economic development and non-Westerners who worry that it has corrosive effects on traditional societies).This is a good historical survey of the idea from the end of World War II through the early 1980s.

For anyone with some familiarity with contemporary development literature, what is striking is what is missing.There is no discussion of the impact of the monetarist or Austrian schools on economic development.While not many of these economists focused on economic development, their work was influential in changing the decision-making emphasesof policymakers in the 1980s and 1990s.The return to largely neoliberal approaches in development aid by the World Bank and individual countries has been quite controversial in the economic and public policy literatures, but is not addressed here.As a previous reviewer noted there is scant discussion of the "Asian tigers" model of economic development.Perhaps, these omissions are due to its publication date of 1987.This work begs for a revised edition.

Basically, this is a good starting point especially for those interested in policy and political economy.However, you also need to turn elsewhere to understand developments of the last 20 years.(BTW for those who like to write in the margins, this work has half-inch outer ones.)

A Must Read for anyone interested in this topic.
An excellent book. A classic in the field of developmental economics. ... Read more