Manderson's review
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner
I picked up this book because I'd realized that I knew close to nothing about economics and its great thinkers. This book fit the bill, providing a breezy and pleasant overview of the development of economic theory, while at the same time also providing an entertaining biography and portrait of each thinker. The author obviously was making an attempt to bring economics onto the table of people who have been turned off by its abstract dryness and mathematics. While I can't say that I understand economics much clearer than I did before, I can say that I enjoyed reading this book and learning about the "worldly philosophers" in greater detail. And now I can almost vaguely define what it is that people are referring to when they talk of "Keynesian" theory. I think.
