ALESSANDRO RONCAGLIA, The Wealth of Ideas: a History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2005; pp. xiv+582.
Alessandro Roncaglia's new book on the history of economics is a very welcome contribution to our understanding of the science, and the several courses it has taken over the last 350 years, from its beginnings as a crucial element of modernity and Enlightenment, to its arrival at its current, problematic juncture. (Actually, the book is a revised English version of an earlier Italian text, with new material.) The work exhibits a deep grasp of economic ideas and their grounding in the wider intellectual culture of the Western traditions, a feature not often found in Anglo-American history of economics texts. It is also a great and probably unique strength of the book that it pays close attention to the conceptualizations that frame schools and strands of economic thought, thereby providing a powerful antidote against Whig history. This is also intellectual history that consciously and clearly speaks to the present. The only comparably good general text in the history of economics is the Outline of the …
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