This book provides a comprehensive overview of the development of economics from its beginnings--at the end of the Middle Ages--to contemporary developments, including some significant contributions of the 1980s. The economic thought of the last 50 years has been given particular attention to reflect the remarkable growth in research accomplished during this period. The authors present traditional and modern theories as part of a historical process. They have not only surveyed economic thought from a theoretical perspective, but have reconstructed the intellectual climate from which new economic theories have emerged.