New Ideas from Dead Economists by Todd G. Buchholz

I really, really liked this book.

I’ll preface my review with an explanation of how I came to be reading a book about economics in the first place, because I have to admit that a year or two ago this would have looked like the one of the most boring books I could pick up from the nonfiction shelves. In fact, however, that’s sort of why I ended up with it in my hands. I have said for years and years that I don’t care much for economics. I have never believed that it’s a worthless subject to know, but I took one required economics class in high school, learned nothing except supply and demand, and never had any desire to revisit the subject.

But I’m self-aware enough to realize that the reason I dislike economics is not because there is anything inherently disklikable about economics itself. Rather, I don’t like economics because I don’t know much about it and therefore I don’t really understand it. That’s why, when I began reading and enjoying nonfiction books not that long ago, I started to think that maybe I ought to pick up a good, informative, well-written, and preferably entertaining book on economics written for a popular audience (if there was such a thing). I did an Amazon search (which includes browsing books and customer reviews and Listmania lists and So You Want To… guides), and found a few promising selections, but it took awhile before I was in the right mood to actually pick one and start it.

The right mood came a few weeks ago. I took advantage of the moment and tracked down one of my choices at the local Borders. New Ideas from Dead Economists was not this choice, actually, but it was on the same shelf, and once I actually held it in my hands and read the back cover and skimmed a few pages, I was convinced that it was precisely what I was looking for. And I was right.

What I like about this book is that it doesn’t just explain current understanding of economic principles. It follows economic thought chronologically, from Adam Smith to the present day (in fact, the book was revised and updated in 2006 so it is quite current). There’s a little bit of biographical detail about each of several major economic thinkers, enough to add some human interest but not so much that it gets in the way of the ideas, which are the real subject. Each trend in economics is explained, along with its historical context, and how it applies to or has repercussions in today’s economy. Buchholz gives a broad picture of the history, ideas, and relevance of economic thinking, and by the time I had finished the book I felt like, although there were many, many details I didn’t understand (no one has ever mastered economics, let alone by reading a single book), I had a much better understanding of what economics is as a discipline, what its relevance is, and also the places it falls short.

On top of all of that, I really enjoyed the actual reading. I wouldn’t call it an easy read for someone who has very little economics background. I had to concentrate, and put more effort into understanding than I normally do in my personal reading. But it was also very well and clearly written. It was a bit like a story, too. I would finish one section and I genuinely wanted to move onto the next. When Buchholz said, “we’ll get to that in the next chapter,” I would anxiously await the next chapter. And he talked very clearly about the contradictions and complications that have arisen over the course of the history of economics as a discipline. It reminds me a bit of reading Complications last year—I spent a whole book learning about the mistakes that surgeons make and still came away with a greater faith in medicine because knowing what doctors can't do also gave me a better picture of what they can. Similarly with this book I spent three hundred pages learning where economic theory has encountered its limits (and, granted, successes) and came away with a greater faith in the relevance and explanatory power of economics. And it also gave me a good reference point for discussions about the economy or politics or monetary policy - all sorts of things that pop up in the news every day. I find it all very interesting, and I also feel like I don't know nearly enough. Maybe it's time for another Amazon search for another economics book.