The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers

Robert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers is a collection of short biographies of important classical economists: Smith, Marx, Keynes, Schumpeter, Malthus, John Stuart Mill, Henry George, etc. While Heilbroner's profiles are useful for their focus on each economist's personal histories, they are unfortunately too high-level and lack sufficient analytical rigor to make the book of lasting value. Younger economics students may enjoy it though.