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Marcel Santos's Reviews > História da Economia Mundial
História da Economia Mundial
by
by
Humans are not perfect just like any product of human activity. Science itself has no ambition of being so — constant evolution from self correction is what matters.
That said, the broader the theme covered by a book, the harder to please every reader. Even though we know humans are not perfect, we tend to judge the things they do as if perfection existed — we disqualify things we consider far from perfection and praise others we consider close to it.
History of Economic Thought is one of those fields with a very ambitious though necessarily ungrateful task: to put together thousands of years of human economic activity, select what is “important”, give them a “fair” description and explanation, and in the end be quickly considered old as History goes on. “Important” and “fair” are inaccurate and open terms. That is where the biases and partiality of the historians — themselves a product of their time — take hold. So it is almost impossible for economic facts or ideas to be described by completely neutral or impartial historians.
In fact, summarizing thousands of years of History of Economics is a colossal challenge not only methodologically, in terms of selection of the relevant facts and schools of thought, but also analytically, as the historian must explain them “satisfactorily” — also a subjective term designating satisfaction from most of the readers with the descriptions and explanations given.
Despite all these challenges, Roger Backhouse does a good job in this very synthetic almost 400-page book. As mentioned, it is obviously impossible to cover everything and explain them with an omnipresent profundity in a single book. Though he shows great ability in uniting concision and some profundity. Backhouse can also be acknowledged as reasonably impartial and fair. His strong power of synthesis counts in his favor most of the times, though at others the reader may feel lost since some theories covered are very dry and difficult (not for nothing Economics was called the dismal science).
As mentioned, of course one could criticize the book for weak selection of Historical facts from bygone eras — which did not bother me at all, since I’m currently not interested in those ancient times —, or the lack of explanation about David Ricardo’s theory on comparative advantages in the foreign trade (about which the author explicitly mentions he is not covering), for instance. In my experience, the final parts covering the most modern economic theories and authors are where the book gets more stimulating. The “guided” bibliography at the end is very useful as readers interested in deepening the study can get good references from it.
This book is a good starting point as it stimulates curiosity and gives elements for further study. Far from perfect, as any other human work is, but very informative.
That said, the broader the theme covered by a book, the harder to please every reader. Even though we know humans are not perfect, we tend to judge the things they do as if perfection existed — we disqualify things we consider far from perfection and praise others we consider close to it.
History of Economic Thought is one of those fields with a very ambitious though necessarily ungrateful task: to put together thousands of years of human economic activity, select what is “important”, give them a “fair” description and explanation, and in the end be quickly considered old as History goes on. “Important” and “fair” are inaccurate and open terms. That is where the biases and partiality of the historians — themselves a product of their time — take hold. So it is almost impossible for economic facts or ideas to be described by completely neutral or impartial historians.
In fact, summarizing thousands of years of History of Economics is a colossal challenge not only methodologically, in terms of selection of the relevant facts and schools of thought, but also analytically, as the historian must explain them “satisfactorily” — also a subjective term designating satisfaction from most of the readers with the descriptions and explanations given.
Despite all these challenges, Roger Backhouse does a good job in this very synthetic almost 400-page book. As mentioned, it is obviously impossible to cover everything and explain them with an omnipresent profundity in a single book. Though he shows great ability in uniting concision and some profundity. Backhouse can also be acknowledged as reasonably impartial and fair. His strong power of synthesis counts in his favor most of the times, though at others the reader may feel lost since some theories covered are very dry and difficult (not for nothing Economics was called the dismal science).
As mentioned, of course one could criticize the book for weak selection of Historical facts from bygone eras — which did not bother me at all, since I’m currently not interested in those ancient times —, or the lack of explanation about David Ricardo’s theory on comparative advantages in the foreign trade (about which the author explicitly mentions he is not covering), for instance. In my experience, the final parts covering the most modern economic theories and authors are where the book gets more stimulating. The “guided” bibliography at the end is very useful as readers interested in deepening the study can get good references from it.
This book is a good starting point as it stimulates curiosity and gives elements for further study. Far from perfect, as any other human work is, but very informative.
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