The Ordinary Business of Life : A History of Economics From the Ancient World to the Twenty-First Century - New Edition

The classic history of economic thought through the ages―now fully updated and expanded Hesiod defined the basic economic problem as one of scarce resources, a view still held by economists today. Diocletian tried to save the Roman Empire with wage and price fixes―a strategy that has not gone entirely out of style. Roger Backhouse takes readers from the ancient world to the frontiers of game theory, mechanism design, and engagements with climate science, presenting an essential history of a discipline that economist Alfred Marshall called “the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.” Backhouse introduces the many fascinating figures who have thought about money and markets down through the centuries―from philosophers and theologians to politicians and poets―and shows how today’s economic ideas have their origins in antiquity. This updated edition of The Ordinary Business of Life includes a new chapter on contemporary economics and the rest of the book has been thoroughly revised. Cover Contents Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Prologue 1. The Ancient World 2. The Middle Ages 3. The Emergence of the Modern World View – the Sixteenth Century 4. Science, Politics and Trade in Seventeenth-century England 5. Absolutism and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-century France 6. The Scottish Enlightenment of the Eighteenth Century 7. The Emergence of Political Economy 8. Mid-Victorian Political Economy 9. The Split between History and Theory in Europe, 1870–1914 10. The Rise of American Economics, 1870–1939 11. Money and the Business Cycle, 1898–1945 12. Quantitative Economics 13. From Marshall to Mathematical Economics 14. Welfare Economics and Socialism, 1870–1945 15. The Second World War and After 16. Markets and the State since 1945 17. Macroeconomics and Policy, 1939–2008 18. Economics in the Twenty-first Century Epilogue A Note on the Literature Notes Index