The Worldly Philosophers

Robert Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers is the most widely read text on the history of economic thought ever written. Here, the great economic thinkers—from Adam Smith to Malthus, Marx to John Maynard Keynes—come to life in the context of their times. We come to see their ideas not merely as inspired works of the past but as commentaries that light up our own times.

Millions of copies of this universally celebrated book have been sold in five editions and in two dozen languages. For over fifty years it has been the standard text in hundreds of introductory economics courses, educating and entertaining millions of readers, teachers, and students alike.