Book excerpt: What makes economies work—or not work? This concise overview of the field’s great thinkers offers a wealth of information. Paul Heyne, one of the nation’s best-selling economists, provides an accessible overview of the discipline of economics. Economic knowledge, he contends, is not complete without reference to the totality of human society—a realization essential to a proper understanding of the fundamental principles of economics. The sweep of economic thinking is presented here with reference to the great economists and important schools of thought.