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İktisadi Düşünce Tarihi
Heinz D. Kurz, bu kısa ve öz kitabında alanında ne kadar yetkin olduğunu ortaya koyuyor. İktisadi düşünce tarihini, iktisay teorileri temelinde - teorilerin oluşumu, inandırıcılığı, iktisay politikası olarak uygulanabilirliği vb. -ele alarak Antik Çağ'dan günümüze kadarki sürecini 246 sayfada derli toplu sunuyor.
246 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 2, 2018
I have for a long time been searching for the one perfect book that I can hand to someone who says to me, “hey, I don’t know anything about economics, but I would like to learn—is there a book you would recommend?” Economic Thought isn’t quite that, although I could do worse. Better? New Ideas From Dead Economists by Todd Buchholz, probably.
One advantage Kurz has over Buchholz is that he is more serious about grappling with Marx. Buchholz’s focuses on Marx’s personal life, an irrelevancy. And I don’t see how you can be glib considering the massive role Communism played in 20th century history and given the continuing influence of Marxism in academia (even if it has largely been banished from economics). But then Buchholz’s book has a heavy focus on economists, which both limits it and makes it more accessible than Kurz’s work. Kurz’s work, to its credit, digs deeper into the economic thought, which is what is really interesting to us, after all.
A few highlights: the coverage of work of Adam Smith, Schumpeter, and Keynes; Kurz’s efforts to divvy up economic thought and categorize eras (classical, marginalist, etc.); the breadth of his coverage (from Mises to Piketty); coverage of the foundations for public choice (Coase, Pigou, Arrow); and coverage of writers who might be considered more ancillary to economics (John Stuart Mill, Amartya Sen).
Economic Thought is a translation and the language can be a bit rough and stilted at times, although to be honest it isn’t any worse than the bulk of academic economic writing.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of Economic Thought via NetGalley.
One advantage Kurz has over Buchholz is that he is more serious about grappling with Marx. Buchholz’s focuses on Marx’s personal life, an irrelevancy. And I don’t see how you can be glib considering the massive role Communism played in 20th century history and given the continuing influence of Marxism in academia (even if it has largely been banished from economics). But then Buchholz’s book has a heavy focus on economists, which both limits it and makes it more accessible than Kurz’s work. Kurz’s work, to its credit, digs deeper into the economic thought, which is what is really interesting to us, after all.
A few highlights: the coverage of work of Adam Smith, Schumpeter, and Keynes; Kurz’s efforts to divvy up economic thought and categorize eras (classical, marginalist, etc.); the breadth of his coverage (from Mises to Piketty); coverage of the foundations for public choice (Coase, Pigou, Arrow); and coverage of writers who might be considered more ancillary to economics (John Stuart Mill, Amartya Sen).
Economic Thought is a translation and the language can be a bit rough and stilted at times, although to be honest it isn’t any worse than the bulk of academic economic writing.
Disclosure: I received a review copy of Economic Thought via NetGalley.
March 10, 2025
Informative, but not all that well-written. Large sections are terribly truncated, so much so that large sections read more like an annotated bibliography than “a brief history.” However, having read it, it will be good reference material.
November 11, 2016
Heilbroner this wasn't.
So if you already know the material and you want somebody's view of how it fits together, that's cool.
If you want a complete list of who fits where in the history of Economics, even better, though the Index does not list all the economists you will encounter in the text.
If you want to know what year all major economists were born, look no further, you have come to the source.
As a book to help you refresh stuff you once knew, however (and I confess that's why I picked it up) it is not that great. I was disappointed.
Finally, it will date quickly, because the author keeps referring to the crisis we're living through.
I'll keep it, all that said, because it is a good and heavily annotated bibliography.
So if you already know the material and you want somebody's view of how it fits together, that's cool.
If you want a complete list of who fits where in the history of Economics, even better, though the Index does not list all the economists you will encounter in the text.
If you want to know what year all major economists were born, look no further, you have come to the source.
As a book to help you refresh stuff you once knew, however (and I confess that's why I picked it up) it is not that great. I was disappointed.
Finally, it will date quickly, because the author keeps referring to the crisis we're living through.
I'll keep it, all that said, because it is a good and heavily annotated bibliography.
August 10, 2025
a brief history of economic thought from ancient Greece to the development of the subfields of economics. covers important topics. the classical school by contributions of Smith and Ricardo are discussed; challenges to this classical thought by Marx, Marginalist Revolution and Austrian School; modern economic thought by Marshall, Keynes, and Schumpeter are emphasized as well. However does not go on to properly discuss the later development in Economic thought, for example economists like Gary Becker who have profound impacts on expanding ideas of Economics to other domains are missed into the discussion.
April 10, 2025
Giving it 3 instead of 2 because it does what it says. It’s a history of economic thought. The writing is SO clunky and pedantic. Many passages feel like they needed two or three more drafts to make them less precocious and more straightforward. Would not recommend, but did learn enough from it to not feel like it was a waste. The sections on Marx and Keynes were my favorites.
January 25, 2020
Sort of a mess and too brief at the end but impressive first half. I was surprised to see Kurz wrote this and was mainly only looking forward to a credible discussion of classical stuff to marginalism to begin with (by a neoricardian), and was not disappointed.
June 21, 2017
Es una excelente síntesis de la historia del pensamiento económico, tocando los trabajos y áreas más importantes dentro de la economía.
Read
August 27, 2020da dismal science
February 22, 2016
Trying to distil economic ideas and theory from the start of time to the present day into a relatively small, understandable and interesting book, which is suitable both for the general reader and economics expert is no easy task: yet the author seems to have achieved this with aplomb.
Clearly this is not going to be a definitive work or the only economics textbook you may need, yet it is a pleasurable romp through history that shows how economics and underlying theories have developed over time. It was not an onerous read and it certainly can give a nudge to even the most jaded of readers! The author even considers some of the current-day concerns of economists and examines how this can relate to world events as a means of rounding off the book.
There was no need to resort to hyperbole or dumbing-down to make the book more attractive. A combination of incisive, thoughtful writing and selective, sensitive editing made the literary journey quite pleasurable and rather more-ish. As this is a translated work, credit must also be given to the translator as in such situations their efforts can really make a difference.
To be fair, some of the material could easily fly over the head of a generalist, yet it did not seem to derail the story being told and the mind perhaps automatically filtered this material away without losing a beat or distracting the reader. This book is capable of serving many different audiences and it serves them well. A highly recommended book for those who crave knowledge.
Clearly this is not going to be a definitive work or the only economics textbook you may need, yet it is a pleasurable romp through history that shows how economics and underlying theories have developed over time. It was not an onerous read and it certainly can give a nudge to even the most jaded of readers! The author even considers some of the current-day concerns of economists and examines how this can relate to world events as a means of rounding off the book.
There was no need to resort to hyperbole or dumbing-down to make the book more attractive. A combination of incisive, thoughtful writing and selective, sensitive editing made the literary journey quite pleasurable and rather more-ish. As this is a translated work, credit must also be given to the translator as in such situations their efforts can really make a difference.
To be fair, some of the material could easily fly over the head of a generalist, yet it did not seem to derail the story being told and the mind perhaps automatically filtered this material away without losing a beat or distracting the reader. This book is capable of serving many different audiences and it serves them well. A highly recommended book for those who crave knowledge.
January 4, 2016
A brief review of the most important economic principles trough the ages till now, without judgments and given with easy and clear words. If you are interested to know the background of the actual situation this could be the book for you.
Un bignamino del pensiero economico dalle sue origini fino ad oggi, semza giudizi e offerto con parole chiare ed esempi comprensibili. Se siete per caso interessanti a quello che ha preceduto l'attuale crisi, questo potrebbe essere il libro per voi.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW!
Un bignamino del pensiero economico dalle sue origini fino ad oggi, semza giudizi e offerto con parole chiare ed esempi comprensibili. Se siete per caso interessanti a quello che ha preceduto l'attuale crisi, questo potrebbe essere il libro per voi.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW!
August 20, 2016
A must read for anyone who's into economics, and even better - for anyone who wants to make some sense of what's happening in the world right now. It won't help you understand everything, it's more like a "gateway drug" to economy. Surprisingly, I actually thought it was fun.
November 30, 2016
Excellent overview of economic thought through the ages. It also recaps most of what you learn during an undergraduate economics degree. It was very readable and enjoyable, and I can see myself dipping into it again and again for a concise version of different economic theories.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews