Influential Economists

Presents information on the lives and work of the economists Thomas Gresham, Adam Smith, Thomas Robert Malthus, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Milton Friedman, and Alan Greenspan.

Gr 8 Up-This well-organized and readable book presents just enough biographical information to put the subjects' work in perspective and excels at showing how their theories fit into the context of their times. Each of the seven subjects represents a different economic theory. They include Thomas Gresham, the 16th-century mercantilist advisor to English royalty; Adam Smith, the voice of laissez-faire capitalism; Thomas Robert Malthus, creator of controversial population theories and opponent of welfare; Karl Marx, leading voice of communism; John Maynard Keynes, proponent of government spending to end the Great Depression and recessions; Milton Friedman, presidential advisor whose theory of monetarism opposed Keynesian economics by controlling the supply of money; and Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman. While there is information on all these men except Gresham in the six-volume set Economics (Grolier, 2000) and Marx and Keynes are covered in individual biographies, this grouping and the author's logical progression from one theory to the next seem to be unique. Serviceable black-and-white photos and reproductions appear throughout.-Jeffrey A. French, Euclid Public Library, OH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.