Economic History or History of Economics?A Review Essay on Sylvia Nasar’sGrand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius

In this essay I review Sylvia Nasar’s long awaited new history of economics, Grand Pursuit. Idescribe how the book is an economic history of the period from 1850-1950, withdistinguished economists’ stories inserted in appropriate places. Nasar’s goal is to show howeconomists work, but also to show that they are people too – with more than enough wartsand foibles to show they are human! I contrast the general view of the role of economics inGrand Pursuit with Robert Heilbroner’s remarkably different conception in The WorldlyPhilosophers. I also discuss more generally the question of why economists might beinterested in their history at all....