A History of Economic Theory and Method

Four stars, because it isn't perfect; it's an excellent text, though. I've taught HET at the undergrad & grad level, in 4 countries, and E & H is by far the best undergrad text. They do a very nice job of tracing the development of economic thinking from the ancient Greeks to present. Their treatments of various theories tend *not* to be simplistic, yet are presented quite clearly; one can learn a fair amount of economics from this book. They also are extremely fair in treating conflicting theories and schools of thought, perhaps too much so at times, but such fairness is extremely important when doing a historical treatment like this -- ideas need to be evaluated on their own terms, and in context, not simply evaluated purely from what we know now. I could list many quibbles: almost no mention of Frank Knight, they misunderstand the importance and scope of the Methodenstreit (e.g. Pareto was heavily involved, it wasn't just Menger's personal feud with Schmoller), they ignore important ideas from the ancient Romans, nothing at all on ancient Chinese, Hebrews, Hindus, too little on Islam, and... And these are all small points. It's a well written undergrad text: thorough, authoritative, written with a very enthusiastic tone, quite readable, includes an enormous number of suggestions for additional reading. If you want deep & detailed theoretical discussion, Blaug's "Economic Theory in Retrospect" is better. If you want pure entertainment, Skousen's book is better (can't recall the name). If you want a very good account of the development of economics, Ekelund & Hebert is your best choice. (Why won't Amzon let me give it 4.5 stars?)

Ekelund-Hebert is one of the better HET texts available. It is not as encyclopedic as Schumpeter, but that would be overkill. It has good coverage right up through the twentieth century. It is more sophisticated than Buchholz, and perhaps less dry than Backhouse. I do have one nit to pick with Ekelund-Hebert. They say far too little about Frank Knight. Knight is a very important figure in twentieth century economics. Ekelund and Hebert say more about some lesser economists. This is especially strange when you consider that Ekelund and Hebert know quite a bit about entrepreneurship. Ekelund and Hebert have written about Knight's theory of entrepreneurship elsewhere, so I expected to see more about this here. Knight also made other significant contributions, so I would have expected higher than average coverage of this economist. Perhaps they should add a chapter about Knight and Davenport. Aside from the abovementioned omission Ekelund-Hebert is one of the better History of Thought texts on the market today. I recommend this text highly. We will see if my students agree...

I had to take a History of Economic Thought class as a requirement for my Master's degree in Economics. The text we used for that class was 'Economic Theory in Retrospect' by Mark Blaug. To make a long story short, that book was extremely cumbersome and probably confused me more than anything else. As a supplement to that text, I procured a copy of this book, 'A History of Economic Theory and Method,' which greatly aided in my understanding of historical economic thought. Although at times this book seems rather simplistic, it's great if you would like to learn the basics of the evolution of economic theory. Whether you are a student of economics, or just want to bone up on your economic history, this is a great book.

The consummate textbook on the History of Economic Theory. Ekelund and Hebert present a thorough examination of said history from the time of Plato to today, and present it in such a way that the material is easily read and understood.This is the book I will be using when I teach History of Thought.

Ekelund-Hebert has long been recognized to be the finest undergraduate history-of-economic-thought textbook on the market. This recognition is very well-deserved. The book's coverage is full, the writing clear, and the economics first-rate.