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The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers [7th Edition] | ![The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers [7th Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PRA8M2BFL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Author: Robert L. Heilbroner
Publisher: Touchstone
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
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Rating:  77 reviews
Sales Rank: 1935
Media: Paperback
Edition: revised 7th
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 068486214X
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.0922
EAN: 9780684862149
ASIN: 068486214X
Publication Date: August 10, 1999
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Product Description
The Worldly Philosophers is a bestselling classic that not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The theme is the common focus of their highly varied ideas -- namely, the search to understand how a capitalist society works. It is a focus never more needed than in this age of confusing economic headlines. In a bold new concluding chapter entitled "The End of the Worldly Philosophy?" Heilbroner reminds us that the word "end" refers to both the purpose and limits of economics. This chapter conveys a concern that today's increasingly "scientific" economics may overlook fundamental social and political issues that are central to economics. Thus, unlike its predecessors, this new edition provides not just an indispensable illumination of our past but a call to action for our future.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 72 more reviews...
 Timeless December 21, 2008
Timothy J. Graczewski (Burlingame, CA United States)
I first read this classic ten plus years ago during winter break as an undergraduate economics major. Not much sunk in back then, which says more about me than it does about the skilled author, Robert Heilbroner. The author turns a two hundred year history of rather recondite theories and inaccessible economic tomes into a clear chain of thought delivered with felicity of phrase and graceful presentation. It is recommended as much to the general educated reader as the adolescent economist on campus.
To begin, the author notes that there was no need for economics before the eighteenth century. He argues that prior to that economic interaction was either cultural or authoritarian in nature. That is, you were either born into your role in society - baker, butcher, tanner, etc. - or were explicitly told by the local magistrate what to do (i.e. build me a pyramid). In such a system, inherently devoid of free choice, there was simply no need for the study of how goods were produced and distributed - they just were.
Heilbroner's approach in "The Worldly Philosophers" is perfect: he tells the story as an interconnected set of biographical vignettes. The narrative is told relay-fashion, with each giant of the so-called dismal science handing the figurative baton on to his successor at the end of each chapter.
Despite the author's best efforts to emphasize (and often over-emphasize) each man's (and they're all men) contribution to our understanding of modern economics, only four profiles really emerge as epochal: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes. The rest of the lives are curious, sometimes compelling, faithfully entertaining, but of significantly lesser gravitas. Many are odd balls, such as the Victorian utopians Saint-Simon, who inspired a cult, and Charles Fourier, who ventured beyond economics to prognosticate on the rise of new moons and life on celestial bodies. Others are rather musty, like Francis Edgeworth, who developed a mathematical model that solved for pleasure seeking, and Alfred Marshall, who during the Great Depression emphasized the central role of equilibrium to the proper functioning of macroeconomics.
So who were these giants - Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and Keynes - and what did they discover and argue that distinguishes them from the rest?
For Smith, it was the initial and vastly important recognition of the existence of a self-regulating market. Products, prices, and wages would all be kept in line without a government official lifting a finger. Self-interest and natural impulses would ensure that everything would work out right. If people wanted more hats, the price of hats would rise, people would exit other industries to become hat makers, and the price of hats would fall. A key hypothesis underpinning Smith's model was that labor, if given sufficient monetary resources, would procreate and thus produce more and more future laborers, which would depress wages. Smith also has the unique distinction of being the first and only economist to create a model that reflected both in generalities and particularities the actual economy in which he lived - a collection of small and easily interchangeable capitalists and laborers.
Ricardo gave us the modern economic model (with assumptions galore and thus susceptible to the "Ricardian vice" of assuming away inconvenient realities) and the concept of economic rents that persists in many commodity markets today, the petroleum industry being most notable. What surprised me here was that Heilbroner did not once associate him with the concept of comparative and absolute advantage, which my undergraduate and graduate educations in economics always emphasized when talking about Ricardo. Given Ricardo's concept of economic rents and the negative role he ascribed to the landlord - who contributed no value to the market and yet siphoned off the vast majority of the gains - it is no wonder that he was viewed as the apostle of free trade before the Corn Laws and even without the concept of comparative advantage.
Marx also looms large for reasons that I would not have anticipated. Heilbroner cites two achievements as especially groundbreaking. First, it was Marx who argued that society is developed and changed by its economic structure - specifically how goods are produced and exchanged - and not by political philosophy or style of government. Second, Marx was the first of the great economic thinkers to recognize the importance of technology in how the economy functioned. Marx saw labor-saving technology as ultimately the cause of capitalism's downfall when all profits were squeezed out of the economy because labor (and the source of profits - labor's overtime "surplus value") was eliminated.
Finally, Keynes is portrayed as almost superhuman. A polymath who was a centerpiece of Virginia Woolf's exclusive high intellectual Bloomsbury crowd, a balletomane who married the legendary prima ballerina from the Diaghilev Ballet Ruse, Lydia Lopokova, who wrote politically disruptive best-sellers (such as "The Economic Consequences of the Peace"), and who happened to make a fortune trading currencies on the side. Indeed, as Heilbroner writes, "He was a phenomenon." Keynes is generally remembered for his endorsement of substantial government interference in the economy. While this may be somewhat accurate, Heilbroner emphasizes a slightly different point. Namely that Keynes argued rather persuasively that capitalism was not dynamic; it could very well stagnate at any level of national income if faith in a prosperous future was not restored. Previous economic greats from Smith onward maintained that the market was self-correcting; if times were bad, wages and interest (the price of investment) would ultimately fall until the capitalists took advantage of the opportunity. Keynes crushed that cherished concept.
In closing, my favorite character in "The Worldly Philosophers" was not one of the truly great economic minds. It was the anti-social, philandering (an odd combination for sure) Norwegian-American Thorstein Veblen. His arguments spoke to me as no others did. Veblen is perhaps best known for his 1899 publication "The Theory of the Leisure Class" in which he maintains that man's economic behavior is not rational, but rather somewhat primordial and thus more closely related to anthropology. We strive for big houses, fancy cars, and other objects of conspicuous consumption to show the rest of society in tangible terms just how powerful we are. These possessions are the equivalents of scalps pinned to the wall of our teepees. Second, Veblen maintained that capitalists actually aimed to subvert the economy, not promote it. He argued that rational engineers were the natural captains of a smoothly functioning economy, but that rapacious capitalists sabotaged the system to make money in the financial morass. It is difficult to read Veblen's words and not think of Wall Street bankers circa 2008.
All told, this is a well-written, easily accessible tour de force.
Very readable October 13, 2008
M. Smith (SLC, UT)
This was a required book for an econ class. The writing style is enjoyable, making it a book I might have read for pleasure.
A brief review of economic history-no more, no less September 30, 2008
Scott Edwards (San Diego, CA)
A decent review of economic philosophy as it changed across time. Not very much depth, but that's the point. This book is on the "List of Unrequired Reading" from UT-Austin, my undergraduate institution. I can't say it's well-written, but probably as easy to read as economics gets. As other reviewers have noted, you read about one period/economist and wish there was more substance given. However, if this were the case, the book would be 1000 pages. After each section, I found myself going to Wikipedia for more information. At the end of the day I learned quite a bit. I'd say this makes a good quick read that would be useful to those lacking a basic understanding of economics and/or the concept of free markets (some of my liberal friends come to mind here).
For a better combination of educational (history) and entertaining reading, I'd suggest something by Daniel Boorstin like The Discoverers.
 Boring and important people omitted September 17, 2008
G. Komaromi (Singapore)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Despite being really interested in getting a good overview of the various ideas and lifes of great economists and being highly motivated I have not managed to get past page 132 - it was such a boring read. It would be much more informative and quicker to print out and read the wikipedia pages of the economists mentioned.
Furthermore the book does not discuss (in most cases not even mention) very influential economists like Friedman, van Mises and it also gives the wrong impression that the first person ever to think about economics was Adam Smith.
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword! June 22, 2008
C. Clayton (Tucson AZ)
I read this book for a Microeconomics class that I took with Dr. Gertmenian at Pepperdine in California back in the late 1980s.
I enjoyed learning about this handful of powerful philosophers who helped shape economic theory. Some of their theories make good sense; other theories make no sense. There is some serious naive thoughts about human nature.
The most fascinating person to me was Adam Smith and his thoughts about the free markets system. I especially enjoyed learning about his "Invisible hand theory." It essentially says that selfish businessmen will be good for the economy because of an "Invisible hand." It is sort of like the Trickle down Theory where as businesses grow they have to buy more good and services, and employ more people. Even though greed may be the reason for business to grow, the economic impact is frequently positive.
There are many interesting topics in the book. Just a few are: The Economic Revolution, The Visions of the Utopian Socialists, The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter and more. This is an excellent book to gain some insight into these early philosophers and their thoughts on economic thinking.
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