Personally I am rather deterred by formulae and graphs and fortunately this book is afflicted by neither. Heilbroner covers every stage of our economic history and development with an accessible style that conveys the main concepts of what can be rather complex economic theories with relevant anecdotes on the economists who penned them and their sometimes eccentric personalities (As with Thorstein Veblen, a strange intellectual giant who spoke 25 languages and was quoted as being 'the last man who knew everything', was largely ostracized by his peers for his radical views on the leisure class and who was adamant that upon his death no monuments, paintings or memorials of any kind be left in his memory).

This book is perfect for anyone interested in understanding how economics interacts with politics, morality and society and how the ideas of the great economic thinkers influenced our historical development right upto the present day.

The book begins cleverly with a chapter looking at why there were a lack of conspicuous economic theorists prior to Adam Smith and then goes on to expound their thoughts and theories with a simplified insight into the key conceptual leaps made by each figure as well as a cutting commentary on where the insight founders.

I say a simplified insight, and by this I mean a concise commentary which does not require any prior knowledge of economics or mathematics for that matter because the script is almost completely qualitative than quanitative and therefore contains virtually no formulae.

On the other hand it might be a good idea to have a comprehensive dictionary to hand because a fair sprinkling of either archaic or little used phraseology is employed throughout the text.

The final chapter entitled 'The end of Worldly Philosophy'is somewhat a surprise package and seems to be a little disjointed from the rest of the book, however it gives an interesting insight to where the current plane of economic philosophy lies.

If you buy the book you will learn much about how the World of money and economics really works, and its condensed form combined with strong guiding editorial comment makes it a worthwhile read.