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Age of the Economist, The (9th Edition)

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The history of economic thought has its fair share of textbooks that cater for introductory studies. Fusfeld's "The Age of the Economist" is one of these texts. Certainly, it is a close substitute for Robert Heilbroner's world-conquering "The Worldly Philosophers". Though not quite as good as Heilbroner in the story-telling department, Fusfeld is better in the area of breadth. "The Age of the Economist" covers a wider range of thinkers right up to the present. Also following Heilbroner, it makes an admirable attempt at fusing together the intellectual, sociological and economic influences shaping the thought of various individuals, schools and movements through time. This is a difficult, but essential task to perform in an introductory text, not least because it impresses upon the uninitiated the importance of taking account of the many and various influences upon the history of economic thought. This is something that is, sadly and, in my opinion, inexcusably neglected in more advanced texts. (Such texts should be properly entitled "Histories of Economic THEORY" rather than "Histories of Economic THOUGHT".) Anyway, Fusfeld does a good job in crafting an introductory history of economic thought text and includes a valuable bibliographical essay, thus enabling the curious reader to delve into the subject in greater depth.

The history of economic thought has its fair share of textbooks that cater for introductory studies. Fusfeld's "The Age of the Economist" is one of these texts. Certainly, it is a close substitute for Robert Heilbroner's world-conquering "The Worldly Philosophers". Though not quite as good as Heilbroner in the story-telling department, Fusfeld is better in the area of breadth. "The Age of the Economist" covers a wider range of thinkers right up to the present. Also following Heilbroner, it makes an admirable attempt at fusing together the intellectual, sociological and economic influences shaping the thought of various individuals, schools and movements through time. This is a difficult, but essential task to perform in an introductory text, not least because it impresses upon the uninitiated the importance of taking account of the many and various influences upon the history of economic thought. This is something that is, sadly and, in my opinion, inexcusably neglected in more advanced texts. (Such texts should be properly entitled "Histories of Economic THEORY" rather than "Histories of Economic THOUGHT".) Anyway, Fusfeld does a good job in crafting an introductory history of economic thought text and includes a valuable bibliographical essay, thus enabling the curious reader to delve into the subject in greater depth.