Good introductory text to the intellectual history of economics and a good antidote to Robert Heilbronner’s The Worldly Economists, as it gives a fair presentation of the main views of non-mainstream economists such as the Austrians Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, as well as the “semi”-Austrian Joseph Schumpeter.

Students of monetary issues will have special interest in the chapters on the early founder of monetarism, Irving Fisher, and the chapters on Mises and Friedman, as well as the chapters on Keynes and post-war Keynesian Paul Samuelson.

Skousen’s own description of the book can be found here.