John's Reviews > Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius

This book can serve equally well as an excellent introduction to the history of economic thought for the reader approaching the subject or as an enjoyable compendium, for the student of economics, of (most of) the main characters that shaped the evolution of economic thinking since the mid-C19.

Nasar is a skilful writer and the narrative flows easily. She draws on biographical material to interlace the life experiences of these thinkers and the broader historical events that shaped their intellectual challenges, with clear and lucid descriptions of their theoretical contributions which will be easily understood by any reader new to economics.

The focus is on the development of "modern macroeconomics", i.e. not the economics of individual product markets or the firm, but the economics of the whole economy seen as a single living entity that humans increasingly come to believe can be managed towards optimal ends (long-run growth in well-being, full employment, stable prices, absence of severe recessions).

Hence, unlike the rare courses in the history of economic thought offered by our universities, Nassar does not start all the way back with the mercantilist gold-hoarding ideas of Munn (1571-1641) or the money-as-blood-in-veins Grollier-clock ideas of Quesnay (1694-1774). Nor does she start with the division of labour in Adam Smith's labour theory of value. Instead she starts with Marx and Engels and moves on through Marshall, the Potters, Fisher, Schumpeter, Hayek; spends much time on Keynes, distinguishing his post-WW1 period with his deeper involvement during WW2; and finishes with Samuelson (the author of the most widely used economics textbook in the 1970s and 80s) and Sen's unique approach.

If I have a niggle, I missed a discussion of the iconic debate between the Bullionists (Ricardo et al) and the Anti-Bullionists (Bosanquet et al) in Britain at the start of C19 -- which should be considered an important part of the "macroeconomic" formulation of monetary theory, and an early echo of today's debate over the use of "quantitive easing" by central banks. Nassar briefly touches upon Jacob Viner, which would have been the obvious entry point as he was the author of the seminal book on that debate (originally published in 1937).