Scan barcode
bleary's review against another edition
5.0
Written in the style of maybe the greatest children's non-fiction book of all time, [b:A Little History of the World|61505|A Little History of the World (Little Histories)|E.H. Gombrich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388179842s/61505.jpg|59819] by [a:E.H. Gombrich|167112|E.H. Gombrich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1188822123p2/167112.jpg], this volume tries to summarise the development of economic thinking from the Greeks right up until the present day.
It does a great job of summing up the dismal science and following the thread of how ideas have been formed, popularised, and been revised in the face of economic catastrophe. Kishtany does his best to make the material intelligible for younger readers and mostly succeeds, although the fact is that sometimes the concepts involved just really are very complicated. The chapter on Milton Friedman, for example, is slightly incomprehensible, but so is monetarism in general.
So it's a book for kids, but very, very precocious kids. More likely, it'll be appreciated by older readers who find themselves baffled by economics and want to catch up quickly. I highly recommend this book for the latter audience.
It does a great job of summing up the dismal science and following the thread of how ideas have been formed, popularised, and been revised in the face of economic catastrophe. Kishtany does his best to make the material intelligible for younger readers and mostly succeeds, although the fact is that sometimes the concepts involved just really are very complicated. The chapter on Milton Friedman, for example, is slightly incomprehensible, but so is monetarism in general.
So it's a book for kids, but very, very precocious kids. More likely, it'll be appreciated by older readers who find themselves baffled by economics and want to catch up quickly. I highly recommend this book for the latter audience.
viveknshah's review against another edition
4.0
Hooter: A beginner friendly walk through the history of economics
Not trying to drown oneself in the intellectual nitty gritties of economics, Niall tries to provide a layman perspective to the evolution of economics over the years and the major players in those times - also adding the prevalent conditions to why it probably made sense then in terms of the theories we consider outdated today. He manages to add a breezy element to reading and learning about economics. He makes Adamn Smith, Fourier, Keynes, Amartya Sen a lot more human and their award winning concepts a lot more relatable. This level of simplicity comes from the mastery of the subject he seems to have.
Not trying to drown oneself in the intellectual nitty gritties of economics, Niall tries to provide a layman perspective to the evolution of economics over the years and the major players in those times - also adding the prevalent conditions to why it probably made sense then in terms of the theories we consider outdated today. He manages to add a breezy element to reading and learning about economics. He makes Adamn Smith, Fourier, Keynes, Amartya Sen a lot more human and their award winning concepts a lot more relatable. This level of simplicity comes from the mastery of the subject he seems to have.
make_it_a_blockbuster_night's review against another edition
5.0
A few years ago I heard that the Fed was going to increase/decrease interest rates. I was frustrated that I didn’t know what that was suppose to do. This book excellently explained the theories of how an economy moves and grows and how economist have tried to understand the coming through history.