The Ordinary Business of Life by Roger E. Backhouse

Roger E. Backhouse is professor emeritus of economics at the University of Birmingham. His many books include The Puzzle of Modern Economics: Science or Ideology? and (with Bradley W. Bateman) Capitalist Revolutionary: John Maynard Keynes. Overview Hesiod defined the basic economic problem as one of scarce resources, a view still held by economists today. Diocletian tried to save the Roman Empire with wage and price fixes—a strategy that has not gone entirely out of style. Roger Backhouse takes readers from the ancient world to the frontiers of game theory, mechanism design, and engagements with climate science, presenting an essential history of a discipline that economist Alfred Marshall called “the study of mankind in the ordinary business of life.” Backhouse introduces the many fascinating figures who have thought about money and markets down through the centuries—from philosophers and theologians to politicians and poets—and shows how today’s economic ideas have their origins in a