14. The Worldly Philosophers

Description of Publication: The Worldly Philosophers

My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to 99 cents a can. That's about $7.00 in dog money.
Joe Weinstein

Robert L. Heilbroner, the author of The Worldly Philosophers, is a wonderful writer, and he would enjoy Weinstein's cover comments about economics. This book is one of Heilbroner's classics, appearing now in its sixth edition. Adam Smith was no slouch in his day either when he wrote The Wealth of Nations (see "Recommended Supplement" below). Although the two books are fundamentally different-Heilbroner's being an overview of the lives of the economists whose ideas set in motion the development of the Western world, and Smith's the voluminous investigation of the nature of what was to become capitalism-they both help to explain the paradigms that created the intellectual foundation of our economy.

Unlike communism and socialism, American capitalism had no ideology specifically adopted by the political process, except that government should stay out of its way. Nevertheless, capitalism is the strongest political-economic force on the planet. The two books in this chapter offer a representative perspective on capitalism and the evolution of economic thinking.

If given the chance, I would insist that every business school student read The Worldly Philosophers before graduating. Two things make this book so enjoyable: (1) the subjects (i.e., the economists themselves) and (2) the storytelling (i.e., the writing should appeal to almost every student). Read how Heilbroner describes these "Great Economists."

An odder group of men . . . could scarcely be imagined. There were among them a philosopher and a madman, a cleric and a stockbroker, a revolutionary and a nobleman, an aesthete, a skeptic, and a tramp. They were of every nationality, of every walk of life, of every turn of temperament. Some were brilliant, some were bores; some ingratiating, some impossible. At least three made their own fortunes, but as many could never master the elementary economics of their personal finances. Two were eminent businessmen, one was never much more than a traveling salesman, another frittered away his fortune.
Their viewpoints toward the world were as varied as their fortunes-there was never such a quarrelsome group of thinkers. One was a lifelong advocate of women's rights; another insisted that women were demonstrably inferior to men. One held that "gentlemen" were only barbarians in disguise, whereas another maintained that non-gentlemen were savages. One of them-who was very rich-urged the abolition of riches; another-quite poor-disapproved of charity. Several of them claimed that with all its shortcomings, this was the best of all possible worlds; several others devoted their lives to proving that it wasn't.
All of them wrote books, but a more varied library has never been seen. One or two wrote best sellers that reached to the mud huts of Asia; others had to pay to have their obscure works published and never touched an audience beyond the most restricted circles. A few wrote in language that stirred the pulse of millions; others-no less important to the world-wrote in prose that fogs the brain.
Thus it was neither their personalities, their careers, their biases, nor even their ideasthat bound them together. Their common denominator was . . .

I hope you will want to read on in this book and in others, such as John Kenneth Galbraith's The New Industrial State or Jude Waniski's How the World Works.

According to the editors, more than 2 million copies of Heilbroner's universally celebrated book have been sold in five editions and in two dozen languages. For over 35 years it has been the standard text in hundreds of economics courses, educating and entertaining millions of readers, teachers, and students alike.

If ever a book answered a crying need, this one does. Here is all the economic lore most general readers conceivably could want to know, served up with a flourish by a man who writes with immense vigor and skill; who has a rare gift for simplifying complexities.
The New York Times

The Worldly Philosophers
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The Worldly Philosophers

ISBN 0-671-63318-X
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