Book description
Study of the grand ideas in economics has a perpetual intellectual
fascination in it's own right. It can also have practical relevance, as
the global economic downturn that began in 2007 reminds us. For several
decades, the economics establishment had been dismissive of
Keynesianism, arguing that the world had moved beyond the
"depression economics" with which it dealt. Keynesian
economics, however, has now staged a comeback as governments attempt to
formulate policy responses to the Great Recession of the first decade of
the twenty-first century.
Many of the issues that faced economists in the past are still with us.
The theories and methods of such men as Adam Smith, T. R. Malthus, David
Ricardo, J. S. Mill, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, and J. M. Keynes are
often relevant to us today--and we can always learn from their mistakes.
In his stimulating analysis Professor Barber assesses the thought of a
number of important economists both in terms of the issues of their day
and in relation to modern economic thought. By concentrating on the
greatest exponents he highlights the central properties of the four main
schools of economic thought - classical, Marxian, neo-classical, and
Keynesian - and shows that although each of these traditions is rooted
in a different stage of economic development, they can all provide
insights into the recurring problems of modern economics. WILLIAM J.
BARBER is Andrews Professor of Economics, Emeritus at Wesleyan
University in Middletown, Connecticut, where he taught from 1957 to
1993. He has served as the president of the History of Economics Society
(1989-1990) and in 2002 was named a Distinguished Fellow of that
society.
