Offering an in-depth coverage of economic ideas from ancient times to the present, this outstanding text delivers today's student powerful insight into the broad scope of past intellectual contributions to the evolution of contemporary economic thinking. Notably shying from a mind-numbing enclopedic listing of isolated people and dusty ideas, the authors provide engaging discourse of both the ideas which have shaped contemporary economic theory and the different methods used for problem solving. The result is a wonderfully sound and inviting history.