New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 368 pages
• Published by: Plume; Rev Upd edition April 6, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0452288444
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0452288447
• Book Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 9.6 ounces

Product Review
Over 150 years ago, Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle dubbed economics the "dismal science." But it certainly doesn't seem that way in the skillful hands of Todd G. Buchholz, author of New Ideas from Dead Economists. In this revised edition of a book first published in 1989, economics is accessible, relevant, and fascinating. It's even fun--for example, when he uses the cast of Gilligan's Island and Henny Youngman jokes to explain complex economic theories. "Why not have the last laugh on Carlyle by using the dead economists themselves to reverse their terrible reputations and to teach the lessons they left to us?"

Buchholz surveys and critiques economic thought from Adam Smith's invisible hand of the 18th century to the depression-fighting ideas of the Keynesians and money-supply concepts of the 20th-century monetarists. He also relates classic economic principles to such modern-day events as the fall of communism, the Asian financial meltdown, and global warming. Buchholz includes plenty of anecdotes about the lives of the great economists: Karl Marx, for instance, was an unkempt slob; David Ricardo, the early-19th-century English politician and economist, was among the rare economists to get rich trading stocks; and Maynard Keynes was so homely his friends called him "Snout." Here's a lively and authoritative read for those interested in the past, present, and future of economics. --Dan Ring --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal
Any book that wants to acquaint the general reader with the history of economic thought must be compared to Robert L. Heilbroner's classic The Worldly Philosophers (S. & S., 1980. 5th ed.). This new book compares most favorably. It is easily accessible to a general audience. Buchholz, a former Harvard economics professor now teaching at the California Western School of Law, is especially strong in discussing the development of economic thought after World War II. Highly recommended for all libraries as an effective and entertaining introduction to economists and their ideas.
- Richard C. Schiming, Mankato State Univ., Minn .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: New Ideas from Dead Economists: An Introduction to Modern Economic Thought (Plume) (Paperback) I enjoyed this book. Todd Buchholz gives his readers a good, well-written introduction to most of the major schools of economics. His portraits of the "dead economists" who launched and powered these various schools are excellent, as are his summaries of each of these schools. (Fortunately, not all of Buchholz's "dead economists" are dead: Ronald Coase, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Robert Lucas, among others, are thankfully still alive.) I will recommend this book to non-economists who ask me for an accessible introduction to economic analysis. Only a few nits are worth picking. One is that, from time to time, Buchholz mentions an interesting fact without providing a reference. For example, in his chapter on Public Choice economic, he illustrates the reality and size of pork-barrel politics by reporting the finding of an (unnamed) researcher who "calculated that for the price of the $200 billion highway bill [enacted by Congress in 1998], the U.S. could literally pave the streets with gold (gold-plating, that is)." I wanted to check out this study, but could find no citation to it. Another nit is that, again in his chapter on Public Choice economics, he should have introduced his readers to the term, and concept, of rent-seeking. A third (and really small) nit is that he mistakenly reports that Thomas Sargent shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in economics with Robert Lucas. Not so. Sargent is not, at least yet, a Nobel laureate. Especially nice are (1) Buchholz's exploration of Keynes's attitude toward government, (2) his explanation of the deepest problems with Marxian economics, and (3) his very able treatment of rational-expectations economics. But please don't read this paragraph as suggesting that Buchholz performs well only in these areas. Again, from beginning to end, this is a very sound and very useful effort.