num_pages: 309
description: The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times &amp; Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers 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.
language: English
title: The Worldly Philosophers
titlecomplete: The Worldly Philosophers
characters: Adam Smith, philosopher, John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, Thomas Robert Malthus, Karl Marx, Henry George, David Ricardo, Thorstein Veblen
genres: Social Science, Business, Biography, Reference, Politics, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Economics, Finance, History
ratings_count: 7994
publisher: Simon & Schuster (NY)