In a sweeping narrative, the author of the megabestseller A Beautiful Mind takes us on a journey through modern history with the men and women who changed the lives of every single person on the planet. It’s the epic story of the making of modern economics, and of how economics rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate.
Nasar’s account begins with Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew observing and publishing the condition of the poor majority in mid-nineteenth-century London, the richest and most glittering place in the world. This was a new pursuit. She describes the often heroic efforts of Marx, Engels, Alfred Marshall, Beatrice and Sydney Webb, and the American Irving Fisher to put those insights into action—with revolutionary consequences for the world.
From the great John Maynard Keynes to Schumpeter, Hayek, Keynes’s disciple Joan Robinson, the influential American economists Paul Samuelson and Milton Freedman, and India’s Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen, she shows how the insights of these activist thinkers transformed the world—from one city, London, to the developed nations in Europe and America, and now to the entire planet. In Nasar’s dramatic narrative of these discoverers we witness men and women responding to personal crises, world wars, revolutions, economic upheavals, and each other’s ideas to turn back Malthus and transform the dismal science into a triumph over mankind’s hitherto age-old destiny of misery and early death. This idea, unimaginable less than 200 years ago, is a story of trial and error, but ultimately transcendent, as it is rendered here in a stunning and moving narrative.
1 有用 张顽强顽强突破 2019-08-23 22:41:57
从马克思到哈耶克,从西德尼·韦布到米尔顿·弗里德曼,娜萨把一位位有血有肉的经济学家带到了我们面前,用一段段细节丰富的故事串联起了近现代经济思想的演化进程,而故事的主角正是这些改变了经济学发展轨迹的男男女女们,也正是他们重塑了我们对这个世界可能性的认知。对于平时不会捧起一本经济学大部头的读者来说,这本书对经济学的刻画无疑是全面而生动的。
1 有用 Welfare 2013-07-13 04:42:24
Many anecdotes, rich references, obvious like and dislike by author, but interesting to see intellectual journey of each giant. I like Beatrice Potter's story of growth-she and her husband are coopera... Many anecdotes, rich references, obvious like and dislike by author, but interesting to see intellectual journey of each giant. I like Beatrice Potter's story of growth-she and her husband are cooperative theorists, members of Fabian Society, and founders of London school of economics. (展开)
1 有用 Ufakir 2020-10-15 20:51:47
sylvia文笔绝了!故事性极强~读完有种酣畅淋漓的快感,和读茨威格的传记略像。五星给叙述文笔。当然也有不足的地方就是这本书,就像作者自己说的,rather than a history of economic thought ...is a story of an idea that was born in the golden age before WW1..Story画重点,可以作为一个精彩... sylvia文笔绝了!故事性极强~读完有种酣畅淋漓的快感,和读茨威格的传记略像。五星给叙述文笔。当然也有不足的地方就是这本书,就像作者自己说的,rather than a history of economic thought ...is a story of an idea that was born in the golden age before WW1..Story画重点,可以作为一个精彩的人物传记合集来读 (展开)
0 有用 庄常飞 2019-03-11 12:40:02
1.5星吧,略有名家八卦,但完全不知道作者想说什么,好像自己就是撞到了什么名人传记就从中找些内容提炼一下。无论是讲思想的深奥之处还是历史社会的宏观背景,都是蜻蜓点水不知所云、有点无面
0 有用 王鸿嫔 2013-05-12 21:05:42
作者史觀、專業、文筆都好,讓每章主角所處的時代有了立體感,如果說,教科書是一張張黑白照片,這本書提供的是3D的閱讀樂趣。
1 有用 Ufakir 2020-10-15 20:51:47
sylvia文笔绝了!故事性极强~读完有种酣畅淋漓的快感,和读茨威格的传记略像。五星给叙述文笔。当然也有不足的地方就是这本书,就像作者自己说的,rather than a history of economic thought ...is a story of an idea that was born in the golden age before WW1..Story画重点,可以作为一个精彩... sylvia文笔绝了!故事性极强~读完有种酣畅淋漓的快感,和读茨威格的传记略像。五星给叙述文笔。当然也有不足的地方就是这本书,就像作者自己说的,rather than a history of economic thought ...is a story of an idea that was born in the golden age before WW1..Story画重点,可以作为一个精彩的人物传记合集来读 (展开)
1 有用 张顽强顽强突破 2019-08-23 22:41:57
从马克思到哈耶克,从西德尼·韦布到米尔顿·弗里德曼,娜萨把一位位有血有肉的经济学家带到了我们面前,用一段段细节丰富的故事串联起了近现代经济思想的演化进程,而故事的主角正是这些改变了经济学发展轨迹的男男女女们,也正是他们重塑了我们对这个世界可能性的认知。对于平时不会捧起一本经济学大部头的读者来说,这本书对经济学的刻画无疑是全面而生动的。
0 有用 庄常飞 2019-03-11 12:40:02
1.5星吧,略有名家八卦,但完全不知道作者想说什么,好像自己就是撞到了什么名人传记就从中找些内容提炼一下。无论是讲思想的深奥之处还是历史社会的宏观背景,都是蜻蜓点水不知所云、有点无面
1 有用 Welfare 2013-07-13 04:42:24
Many anecdotes, rich references, obvious like and dislike by author, but interesting to see intellectual journey of each giant. I like Beatrice Potter's story of growth-she and her husband are coopera... Many anecdotes, rich references, obvious like and dislike by author, but interesting to see intellectual journey of each giant. I like Beatrice Potter's story of growth-she and her husband are cooperative theorists, members of Fabian Society, and founders of London school of economics. (展开)
0 有用 王鸿嫔 2013-05-12 21:05:42
作者史觀、專業、文筆都好,讓每章主角所處的時代有了立體感,如果說,教科書是一張張黑白照片,這本書提供的是3D的閱讀樂趣。