Robert L. Heilbroner was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some 20 books, Heilbroner was best known for The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, a survey of the lives and contributions of famous economists, notably Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes.Lester Carl Thurow was a political economist, former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of books on economic topics.

• Introduction I The Economic BackgroundOne Capitalism: Where Do We Come From?Two Three Great EconomistsThree A Bird's-Eye View of the EconomyFour The Trend of ThingsII Macroeconomics -- The Analysis of Prosperity and RecessionFive The GDPSix Saving and InvestingSeven Passive Consumption, Active InvestmentEight The Economics of the Public SectorNine The Debate About GovernmentTen What Money IsEleven How Money WorksIII Microeconomics -- The Anatomy of the Market SystemTwelve How Markets WorkThirteen Where Markets FailFourteen The Two Worlds of BusinessIV ProblemsFifteen The Specter of InflationSixteen The Inequality ProblemSeventeen GlobalizationEighteen National Policy in a Globalized WorldNineteen The Unfinished RevolutionIndex

The Boston Globe An excellent course in the history of capitalism and socialism, of growth, progress, and decline.