"ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL ECONOMISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY"

HICKS, John R. A Theory of Economic History. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1969. Octavo, original navy cloth, original dust jacket. $350.

First edition of this work on the evolution of the market economy.

Hicks' Theory of Economic History looks at the market economy as the result of an evolution—as an entity that has not always existed no matter what some economists might argue. Hicks delves into the seedier side of this market economy—into slavery, usury, and other manmade horrors—in an attempt to present a balanced portrait of what the market economy has been at its worst and what it grew into as the Industrial Revolution took hold. "One of the most important and influential economists of the 20th century, the trail of the eternally eclectic John Hicks is found all over economic theory… The quintessential 'economist's economist,' Hicks cannot be said to have founded a 'school… If any, his school was 'economics… Hicks' scholarly output is a perfect demonstration of how economics should be done: without partisanship for pet theories, without ideological quibbling, his own strictest critic, learning from all and everywhere, constantly searching for new ideas and staying glued to none… No economist, before or since Hicks, has achieved such 'Olympian' scholarship" (Fonseca). "Hicks will probably appear in the history of economics as the greatest British theorist of the century" (Niehans, 371). Hicks was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1972.

Book about-fine, price-clipped dust jacket near-fine with light rubbing.