The obvious way to distinguish Backhouse's book from other histories of economic thought is that it begins much earlier than most. He mines the writings of Deuteronomy, Plato, Aristotle, Paul of Tarsus, Augustine and others. Although the sources are familiar, modern readers are apt to dismiss the passages on money, interest, trade, employment and economic morality as unsophisticated. Backhouse's deeper analysis reveals that the ancients were struggling with the same issues that define economics today, and their writings greatly influenced early modern economists and indirectly influenced economics today. If Landreth and Colander's classic History of Economic Thought
tells the evolution of economic answers, Backhouse's book explains the evolution of economic questions. His treatment gives deeper insight into historical economic writings and suggests broader views of contemporary economic issues than many well-read economists are likely to have. Modern economics grew out of consideration for morality, social organization and what constitutes a good life, not the narrow questions of the behavior of markets and the allocation of scarce resources in an industrial capitalist nation state. Reestablishing links to modern thought in these fields could be fruitful, suggests Backhouse, a professor of the history and philosophy of economics at the University of Birmingham. Other good histories of economics, notably Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers
and Galbraith's History of Economics, describe individual thinkers in the context of their times; Backhouse shows that the timeless context is also important. For all of the interdisciplinary excursions and skillful, light writing, his is an important work on macroeconomics. Interesting and accessible to amateurs, it should also be welcomed by professionals. (May)
