Great Economists, The: Ten Economists Whose Thinking Changed The Way We Live

by Phil Thornton

The Great Economists succinctly and accurately describes the thinking of the world’s leading economic thinkers. It captures their key beliefs, explores their backgrounds, assesses their thinking and evaluates their legacy. It explains the schools of thought named after them and clearly shows how they influence our everyday lives.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Business

265 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Nikos Tsentemeidis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Απλό και κατανοητό, ιδανικό για μια εισαγωγή στον τομέα της οικονομίας, από ιστορικής άποψης.

[Noor Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent source for anyone who wants to learn about the lives and achievements of the most famous economists of all time whose work have shaped and defined our modern economic system.

What is great about this book is that it provides the reader with the key important information about each economist without getting into too much details so it's a good introduction for anyone who is quite new to the subject of economics and doesn't want to get into much deeper stuff yet.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this field.

[elif kalafat · Rating 5 out of 5]

TR is below-

it must be said that it is a very well compiled book. Not giving too much details made the book a more readable and essential resource. Those who think the economics is concerned with only fiscal policies and only the country's economy should read it. Because this book shows us the economists deal with a lot of topics like the economics of discrimination, home economies, crime and criminal economics, marriage, human capital (their education, cost of improving them) etc. The economics exists wherever we make decisions. He expresses this very well, and he chose names very nice too. Also it should be noted that we have so lucky to have micro-economists especially my favorite Gary Becker...👨
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kitabın çevirisinin çok kötü olduğunu söylemekle başlamak zorundayım... bir noktadan sonra Ingilizce okumaya başladım. ingilizcesinin çok sağlam olduğunu söyleyebilirim. sağlamdan kastım ise şu: vermek istediğini veriyor. gerçekten ekonomistlerin nelerle uğraştığını görmek adına müthiş bir kaynak. ekonomiyi; stok marketlerden ve fiscal policy'lerden ibaret sanan güruh için mükemmel bir derleme olmuş. özellikle... Gary Becker... tanıdığıma inanılmaz mutlu oldum. Marshall, Hayek için de aynı duyguları besliyorum. canım mikrocu ekonomistler...

dili çok güzel, fakat makrocu ekonomistleri anlamak için ec101 temelinin kesinlikle gerektiğini düşünüyorum. kalanları gayet iyiydi. ki bence anlamasa da insan okumalı. ekonomiyi sevip sevmediğini ya da hangi dallarla uğraştığını anlamak için kesinlikle önerilir.

[Athina (booknotes_athina) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το βιβλίο αυτό μου άρεσε γιατί μου θύμισε τα φοιτητικά μου χρόνια και όλα όσα μάθαινα τότε. Ο συγγραφέας ασχολείται με 10 οικονομολόγους που άλλαξαν τη ζωή μας. Από τον Adam Smith και τον J. M. Keynes μέχρι τον Karl Marx και τον Daniel. Περιγράφει με ωραίο και κατανοητό τρόπο τη ζωή, το έργο τους αλλά και τα πιστεύω τους.

[Νίκος Κοτρίδης · Rating 4 out of 5]

Φοβερό βιβλίο, διαβάζετε ευχάριστα, χάνει όμως στο γεγονός ότι χρησιμοποιεί εξειδικευμένη ορολογία, με αποτέλεσμα ο αναγώστης να χάνεται, σε ορισμένα σημεία. Παρόλα αυτά το συνιστώ ανεπιφύλακτα για όποιον θέλει να κάνει μια εισαγωγή στην επιστήμη της οικονομίας.

[Cuneyt Degertekin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Türkçe çevirisi çok kötü. İş bankası yayınlarına yakışmamış.

[José Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book explores the life and work of ten economists by first focusing on each ones background and life story and then on each ones work and contributions to economy.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book a lot since it is specific and extensive enough in its analysis of economic theories and other contrivutions without becoming boring and difficult to understand.

I also recon that this book is a excelent introduction to someone that doesn´t understand a lot abou economy mainly because, by writting about several economists, the author is able to construct a "timeline" and convey the ideia that the world of economic thinking is basically a construction of each and every one's contrubution making the reader understand how important some ideais where in the time they where developed and shapped the way of thinking of future economists.

In conclusion, I found it interesting the authors decision to include a chapter about Marx and its socialist/comunist way of thinking and approaching the market. Clearly, this doesn´t work. Neverteless, dreaming never hurt anybody.....but comunist regimes always have.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brief introduction to the thought of ten economists since Adam Smith which essentially updates Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers. Very little here for those who know the history of economic thought to any degree, but a passable enough introduction for anyone on a long journey.

[Leer es Pensar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un excelente libro, resúme de una forma amena y clara, los 10 economistas más influyentes hasta nuestros días.
Leer sus vidas y aportaciónes despertó el gusto, curiosidad por saber más de economía, pero no una economía lejana y fuera de nuestro alcance, sino una economía que sirve a la vida cotidiana, a tomar desiciones. En fin un gusto y un disfrute leer cada gran personaje.
Muy recomendable.

[Filip G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing insights from this book. Very well written for people who just get into economics.

[Nedislav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone interested in economics should read this book. The important thing is that it covers experts from different eras and fields of economics thus proving the reader with a comprehensible overview of the subject. The language is fairly simple and the examples are spot on.

What I found difficult was the terminology. I was surprised that I know so little about inflation, division of labour or the economic crisis. After all, we should all know stuff like that, shouldn't we? Well, no. If you want to get the most out of it - make sure you have basic knowledge of economic terms or at least be prepared to look them up whilst reading.

Overall, the book is a perfect introduction into the field but it's definitely not a textbook. If you want to continue reading every chapter ends with a "Further readings" list so you can have your knowledge thirst quenched.

[Alexandre Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bom livro para conhecer o pensamento econômico. Desde a formalização da especialização do trabalho por Adam Smith, passando pelo equívoco emocional de Marx, chegando a Keynes, Friedman, Samuelson e Kahneman. O livro não é de estudo profundo. Ele traz conceitos básicos muito utilizados em artigos e notícias de finanças e economia encontrados em diversos jornais e revistas para descrever acontecimentos do dia-a-dia. Junto da descrição de cada contribuição de cada economista há também um breve relato biográfico.

[Mohamed Sholkamy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has a good way of presenting the economic challenges and explaining it very well; I also like the idea of putting these challenges infront of the “great economists” and letting the reader imagine how would they approach it. However, the drawback is that a very significant proportion of the book is getting into their background, to the extent that sometimes I felt it’s an autobiography book and got completely disconnected from the main topic, also, I think there were much more great economists to be included in the book.

[Manolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for everyone about the most important people/ideas in the Economic Science, strongly recommended, solid and very much enjoyable even for Economists who want to refresh their memory with its history, while it will provide anyone a background to understand the problems and failures of current affairs - even provoke a lot of thought ;)

(I read the greek "Patakis" translation by ms. "Soti Triantafillou" , excellent one)

[Ozgur Senogul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book for an introduction about main definitions of economics. But the level of detail on history and conceptial variations of economics is surging. Sometimes we come across with deep technical details, however sometimes popular interpretations. Two of them put this work on a indefinite genre. But popular economics suits more, i think. In brief, a bit boring for a basic biography on important economicians, besides insufficient for an economics reading.

[Viks · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a brilliant introduction into the key figures that have shaped economical theory starting right at the begging with Adam Smith and tracing back to modern economical theory. The format was very clear and engaging, explaining each section with enough detail and diagrams along with further reading suggested which I found very useful if desired to learn more about one of the key figures. Overall it served it's purpose as presenting why they are part of The Great economists well!

[Albino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great compact guide to the History of economic thought. The chapters get shorter as we go forward in time, I think that would leave room for some more contemporary economists to go along with kahneman.

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Básico pero cumple su objetivo. Sirve para darse una idea general de los principales postulados de cada economista.

[Marginalia Σημειώσεις στο περιθώριο]

Κριτική του βιβλίου (και της ελληνικής μετάφρασης της Σώτης Τριανταφύλλου) από τον Χρήστο Λάσκο στο πέμπτο μας τεύχος εδώ: https://marginalia.gr/arthro/oi_megal...