The Making of Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the Great Thinkers, Second Edition

The performer's voice is too soft, and too close to a monotone. To his credit, there were no flaws in his reading, but unfortunately his voice just isn't suited for it at all.

I would not recommend this reading to anyone, I can't imagine how the other reviewers made it all the way through!

Economics is sometimes referred to as "the dismal science". This is a book which gives lie to the charge. Skousen treats the history of economic thought with both style and substance, a rare combination most suitable to the simultaneously technical and biographical nature of this book. With astounding clarity and candor, The Making of Modern Economics tells the story of our steps and mis-steps on the road to economic understanding while describing the lives and personalities of the people at the forefront of economic thought with humanizing warmth. Skousen has shined a light on the foundations of the ivory tower of economics, introducing to us personally the great scholars and revoltionaries who built it- and revealing how some of the greatest among them were buried beneath it. Out of dozens, this may be the only economics book which I have read more than once cover-to-cover (perhaps I should say ear-to-ear), and will most likely return to again.

Again I have my homework to do. Yet Skousen does for Economics what Tesla did for Innovative Power. He is objective, well researched, and focused on what he wants the reader to do, not to judge the character of an Economist, but do their ideas work? From the beginning of the story, he introduces to great Economics, their habits, their idiosyncrasies. He does not give you Economics straight, but provides a chaser with antidotes, along with pertinent facts. He is far ahead of the game of his Academic Communities than he knows. He is on the verge, if not there, on the Mt. Everest of Greatness!

I like him, had a terrible Economics Professor in 101 Econ back in College. If the Professor, unlike Skousen's The Making of Modern Economics, could have made me majoring in Economics rather than Ancient and U.S. Histories.

Hughes is fresh, lively, and sounds as if he never tires, he is a welcomed relief, and does what is supposed to, bring the text alive with crisp inflections.

Well, Skousen seems to use what I would like to call "Oral Histories" or "Action History" where you, and he, study together events, and the effects of theory making in the world of Economics. This book is a must read for anyone in Government, State, Local and at the Federal Reserve.

If you teach Economics at any level, think if Skousen could be described as an NBA player; He could be considered to be another Lebron James!

A non-biased presentation that doesn't try to demonize Keynes and glorify Friedman and the Austrian/Chicago school.

Something by Keynes to wash the Market Fundamentalist crap out of my brain. Actually I have since listened to Paul Krugman's book "End This Depression Now" and I feel greatly cleansed.

Not be biased.

It put the great economists into a clear chronology for me and gave me a more personal understanding of their lives and thoughts.

If Skousen hadn't tried to make the case toward the end of the book, that an unfettered and unregulated free market will somehow produce a stable economy, and that there is such a thing as efficient markets and that there is no such a thing as involuntary unemployment, the book might have gotten a much higher vote from me. Keynes wasn't necessarily right about everything, but he was right about some very important things, and there are some much needed and much ignored Keynesian solutions to our present economic circumstance.

a comprehensive account that is inherently long and at points lacks "punch"