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Brief
History of Economic Genius
By
Paul Strathern
Texere, 2002 - 360pages
I bought this book hoping it might shed
some insights into the thoughts and times of the world’s
greatest economists and I got what I hoped for.
In particular I was hoping to see if the author did a
good job in relating economics to other areas such as
politics, science, sociology, history philosophy and
mathematics and the book fulfilled my desire.
The book was well written, in terms of prose, making it
an easy book to read economics books, especially for
non-economists.
If I had anything to gripe it would be
the EXTREMELY poor editing.
Throughout the book I found words that had mistakenly
been split up by a spac e mark, such as what I have included
in this review. One
or two can be forgiven but the twenty or so I seem to have
come across is truly shameful for a book at approximately $20
or more. As a
result of this and the poor examples provided I rate the book
a 3 star book
This book, like The
Worldly Philosophers and New Ideas from
Dead Economists, is designed to illustrate the thoughts and
history of the world’s greatest economic thinkers.
Economists. This
book is ideal for those seeking to learn about some of the
contributions of the world’s greatest economists as well as
those who are history buffs and want to learn more about the
times / overlap of the world’s greatest minds in other areas
such as philosophy, science, etc as many of these individuals
had an impact on economists of their times.
Economists highlighted in the book, which
goes in chronological order from past to recent, include Adam
Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Robert
Malthus, George Marshall, Thorton Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter,
John von Neumann, John Nash and Milton Friedman.
Some historic events mentioned in the
book, since they affected the economists’ thoughts, are
Holland
's 17th-century bout of tulipmania,
Britain
's notorious South Sea Bubble, The French Revolution, the
Great Depression, and the rebuilding and retribution
strategies following the two world wars.
Most of my reviews are in business /
economics and I encourage people to read them.
If you are interested in another excellent economics
book I would start with The
Worldly Philosophers (which I would buy
before this book) and then read Hernando DeSoto’s Mystery
of Capital.
A great general business book is by the management guru
Peter Drucker entitled “The
Essential Drucker”.
Just so you know, he didn’t pick the title but his
work is excellent and highly applicable for managers.
One final note, The Mystery Of Capital is
a highly regarded, easy to read book on economic development
that is VERY popular in the offices of dignitaries throughout
the world, including Paul O’Neill (Secretary of State for
the U.S). During a
recent CNBC documentary on Mr. O’Neill the secretary met Mr.
DeSoto to get some insights before his trip to
Africa
where he will focus on ways to improve economic development in
3rd world nations.
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