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leftistsquidward's review
4.0
This shit took me ages to read bc I was smack in the middle of applications, interviews and an online degree but will now have more time to pick up the pace.
Fun and interesting! Gives a great sense of the map economists had in their heads about how societies should be run and where those systems thrived or failed. Some critiques feel contradictory (especially Marx’s ones where things Barber mentions were answered in his previous descriptions of him lol) but never boring.
Barber very clearly idolised Keynes but even with him can often go back to describing where the model fails societies. No economics are safe from scrutiny and in all fairness I think it’s understandable Barber was fixated on showing Keynes’ achievements. The model historically failed bc countries wanted growth over security of its own people and Hayek stepped in to unleash the neolib monopoly-friendly structure we have now, but at the time Keynes convinced almost every western country to go against dogmatic beliefs of free market capitalism to ensure poor people could eat and work which Barber understandably finds remarkable.
Regardless of how inherently flawed it all is, as a primer it’s short and easy to read so it’s effective.
Fun and interesting! Gives a great sense of the map economists had in their heads about how societies should be run and where those systems thrived or failed. Some critiques feel contradictory (especially Marx’s ones where things Barber mentions were answered in his previous descriptions of him lol) but never boring.
Barber very clearly idolised Keynes but even with him can often go back to describing where the model fails societies. No economics are safe from scrutiny and in all fairness I think it’s understandable Barber was fixated on showing Keynes’ achievements. The model historically failed bc countries wanted growth over security of its own people and Hayek stepped in to unleash the neolib monopoly-friendly structure we have now, but at the time Keynes convinced almost every western country to go against dogmatic beliefs of free market capitalism to ensure poor people could eat and work which Barber understandably finds remarkable.
Regardless of how inherently flawed it all is, as a primer it’s short and easy to read so it’s effective.
marc129's review against another edition
2.0
Read diagonally as a student. Conventional historical overview of economic thinking.