Synopses & Reviews
This history of theories and theorists of economic growth elucidates the economic theory, economic history, and public policy observations of the renowned scholar W. W. Rostow. Looking at the economic growth theories of the classic economists up to 1870, Rostow compares Hume and Adam Smith, Malthus and Ricardo, and J.S. Mill and Karl Marx. He then examines the period 1870-1939 and its economic theorists, including Schumpeter, Colin Clark, Kuznets, and Harrod, and surveys the three forms of growth analysis in the postwar era: formal models, statistical morphology, and development theories. This authoritative overview also includes an agenda of unresolved problems in growth analysis and a description of the five major tasks statesmen will confront over the next several generations.
Review
"In the 1950s and since, by far the most frequent reference in discussion of economic development has been to Rostow's stages of growth. Now in this wide-ranging survey of development thought Professor Rostow deals brilliantly with the whole flow of ideas on this subject. No one in the future will be fully informed on economic development who has not read this book."--John Kenneth Galbraith,
Harvard University"This is the rich and illuminating work we expect from the pen of Professor Rostow, as one of the persons most knowledgeable about both economic growth and the history of economic ideas. No one who works in these fields can afford to overlook this book."--William J. Baumol, Director, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics
"Rostow's new book is a delight: panoramic, rich, lucid, and enlivened by humor (a quality for which the 'dismal science' is not especially noted)....His book is a major publication in the history of economic thought."--Finance and Development
"The book fills a great gap in the history of economic thought for the 1870-1939 period....Students and staff will welcome this magisterial tome."--he Economic Journal
"A master economic historian at work. Rostow's new book is learned, imaginative, and extremely useful."--Henry Rosovksy, Harvard University