The Making of Modern Economics : The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers

Skousen, author, editor, and academic, tells the story of the development of economic thought, describing his approach as '' . . . a candid, irreverent, passionate, sometimes humorous and often highly opinionated account of the lives and theories of famous economists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman.'' The author's unique view compares the development of economic thought to the construction of a building, designating Adam Smith's 1776 Wealth of Nations as the foundation. He contends that Smith's philosophy of natural liberty and the invisible hand was a sound foundation that created a new era of wealth and economic growth spanning two centuries. With the inclusion of photographs, diagrams, commentaries, and even appropriate music selections, each chapter is devoted to a major economist and his theories, showing how he added to or detracted from Smith's positions. Skousen ends on an optimistic note even as fighting continues over which economic policies to pursue in times of crisis, uncertainty, and globalization. Discusses Economists Such As Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Irving Fisher, Thorstein Veblen, Frederic Bastiat, Eugen Bohm-bawerk, Edward A. Chamberlin, John Bates Clark, David Colander, Peter F. Drucker, Frank Fetter, Milton Friedman, John Kenneth Galbraith, Roger B. Garrison, Henry George, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, G.w.f. Hegel, Robert Heilbroner, David Hume, William H. Hutt, William Stanley Jevons, John Maynard Keynes, Frank H. Knight, Alfred Marshall, Jenny Marx, Carl Menger, Ludwig Von Mises, Wesley C. Mitchell, Charles Montesquieu, Arthur C. Pigou, Francois Quesnay, David Ricardo, Joan Robinson, Murray N. Rothbard, Paul A. Samuelson, J.-b. Say, Joseph A. Schumpeter, Anna J. Schwartz, Henry C. Simmons, Mark Skousen, Herbert Spencer, George Stigler, Alexis De Toqueville, Leon Walras, Max Weber, Knut Wicksell, Friedrich Von Wieser, And Others. It All Started With Adam -- The French Connection: Laissez Faire Avance! -- The Irreverent Malthus Challenges The New Model Of Prosperity -- Tricky Ricardo Takes Economics Down A Dangerous Road -- Milling Around: John Stuart Mill And The Socialists Search For Utopia -- Marx Madness Plunges Economics Into A New Dark Age -- Out Of The Blue Danube: Menger And The Austrians Reverse The Tide -- Marshalling The Troops: Scientific Economics Comes Of Age -- Go West, Young Man: Americans Solve The Distribution Problem In Economics -- The Conspicuous Veblen Versus The Protesting Weber: Two Critics Debate The Meaning Of Capitalism -- The Fisher King Tries To Catch The Missing Link In Macroeconomics -- The Missing Mises: Mises (and Wicksell) Make A Major Breakthrough -- The Keynes Mutiny: Capitalism Faces Its Greatest Challenge -- Paul Raises The Keynesian Cross: Samuelson And Modern Economics -- Milton's Paradise: Friedman Leads A Monetary Counterrevolution -- The Creative Destruction Of Socialism: The Dark Vision Of Joseph Schumpeter -- Dr. Smith Goes To Washington: The Triumph Of Market Economics. Mark Skousen. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. An introduction to the major economic philosophers since 1775. Beginning with Adam Smith and continuing through to the present day, this work examines the contributions made by each individual to the role of the economist, the science of economics, and economic theory.