A nice analysis of human history from a pure economic point of view. A good compendium to look when working on a particular subject that deals with a specific historical or political context. Refers the names, schools, ideologies behind many possible analysis (institucional, classic, liberal, marxist, historicist...). Besides good references to economic thinkers and books it shows us the main forces and ways people lived, economies worked, thrived or declined, the reach and extent of economic revolutions or jumps, etc, etc. Although the narrative can be sometimes ideologic (it is Brasseul´s economic analysis) this is a good book. Everyone who tries to understand politics and specially if one studies History this kind of notion (theoretical and practical, how did people live and "earned a living" during each period) is absolutely indispensable.