front cover of Great Economic Thinkers
Great Economic Thinkers
An Introduction-from Adam Smith to Amartya Sen
Edited by Jonathan Conlin
Reaktion Books, 2019
Great Economic Thinkers presents an accessible introduction to the lives and works of thirteen of the most influential economists of modern times: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall, Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes, and Nobel Prize winners Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, John Forbes Nash, Jr., Daniel Kahneman, Amartya Sen, and Joseph Stiglitz. Free from confusing jargon and equations, the book describes key concepts put forward by these thinkers and shows how they have come to shape how we see ourselves and our society. Readers will consider the role played by the division of labor, wages and rents, cognitive biases, saving, entrepreneurship, game theory, liberalism, laissez-faire, and welfare economics.

All of the economists featured have had a profound influence on our attitudes towards market intervention and regulation, taxation, trade, and monetary policy. Each of the chapters—all written by an acknowledged expert—combines a biographical outline of a single thinker with critical analysis of their contribution to economic thought. If you’ve ever wanted to find out more about the theorists who gave us the invisible hand, Marxism, Keynesianism, creative destruction, behavioral economics, and many other foundational concepts of economics, this collection of essays is the perfect place to start.
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logo for Pluto Press
Understanding Capitalism
Critical Analysis From Karl Marx to Amartya Sen
Douglas Dowd
Pluto Press, 2002
Understanding Capitalism combines the essays of seven leading economists, including Robin Hahnel and John Bellamy Foster, in a critical assessment of the relationship between economic thought and the dominance of capitalism. With analyses of economists ranging from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen, the book traces the growth of the capitalist system over the past two hundred years and how economic theory has, in fact, become capitalist ideology. Relating socio-economic and analytical histories to present-day economic policy, this is a thoroughly accessible work which makes an ideal introduction to the key thinkers in economic thought past and present.

Major economists and economic schools of thought are discussed in a chapter-by-chapter guide that covers Marx, Veblen, Gramsci, post-Keynesian theory, US institutionalists, Sweezy and the Monopoly Capital school, and recent Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen. Contributors include Michael Lebowitz, Carl Boggs, Michael Keaney, Frederic Lee, John Bellamy Foster and Robin Hahnel, with an introduction by the editor, Douglas Dowd.
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