This engaging and concise book covers important economic issues over an extensive period of human history. It discusses the development of capitalism, the evolution of economic thought, and the influence of economic forces on historical events. Its intended audience is people with an interest in economic issues who have little or no formal background in economics. The book makes complex economic concepts accessible to a large audience.

Out of Africa/​ The earliest humans were hunter-gatherers in southern Africa. They evolved from primates, as Africa was a favorable location for evolution. However, since their early evolution about 300,000 years ago, humans have prospered more in regions distant from Africa. Indeed, in 2025 Africa remains the poorest continent in terms of gross domestic product per capita.

Human innovations allowed mobility that reduced the importance of early locations. As humans migrated, they found it advantageous to take plants and animals with them to their new locations. The author emphasizes the importance of migration throughout history, and it continues to be important—and controversial—today.

The development of language was crucial to human progress. Language permitted the development of collective (shared) knowledge that exceeded the capacity of any single person. Accumulated knowledge led to the development of stone tools, including the plow, that contributed to the development of agriculture that replaced hunting and gathering.

Despite the resulting increases in agricultural productivity, early human life was difficult. In the words of Thomas Hobbes, early human life was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” In this archaic era, some 40 percent of babies died in their first year, and life expectancy was 33 years. But change was coming.

Agriculture allowed people to specialize in producing what they did best and acquire other goods from people with different relative productivities. More perceptive people learned that specialization and trade benefited both parties, even if one party was more productive at both activities. Both parties would gain if each specialized in making the product it did relatively (not absolutely) better. This idea was later called comparative advantage. Specialization led to the development of towns, organized markets, and trade.

Conditions in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East were favorable to the growth of the early founder crops (wheat, barley, peas, chickpeas, lentils, flax, and vetch). The wheel first appeared in Mesopotamia as a potter’s wheel, and later it was used to propel carts. It was a major improvement for land-based transportation and had many subsequent applications. Human innovations ultimately made other geographical locations more valuable and reduced the early importance of the Fertile Crescent.

Water/​ Water was crucial for early transportation. Leigh reminds readers that because two-thirds of the planet is covered in water, it may have been more appropriate to name it “Water” rather than “Earth.” Rivers and oceans were more important to commerce than roads. Even after the invention of the wheel, roads were so poor that water transport dominated land transport.

Early water transport was the least-cost mode for many trades, and human innovations improved it with the building of canals and deepwater ports. The Grand Canal in China (built around 600 CE) connected the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. Improved water transportation contributed to the development of cities and the migration of people, goods, and new ideas. Unfortunately, it also aided in the spread of diseases, such as the Plague, and war between distant people.

Cities such as Lisbon, Athens, and Alexandria prospered early. Traders took maize and sweet potatoes to China in the 1500s. Inventions such as reading glasses and the printing press spread more quickly by long-distance trade.

Despite progress, life remained difficult in the Middle Ages. Childbirth resulted in the deaths of one-third of babies and mothers. Illness was common, and the Black Death was an extreme example. It was carried from Central Asia to Europe in 1347 by Genoese traders sailing from the Black Sea. It killed a third of the European population, more than in most brutal wars. It killed half the population of the city of Cairo. Over the 14th century, the world population dropped from 430 million to 350 million. The Black Death also destroyed feudalism, which was based on the power of landowners over many peasant workers.

By 1400, Europe became the most affluent region in the world. It contained many domesticated plants and animals, and geography allowed Europeans to range over a large east–west territory, while remaining in the same north–south climate band. Later, travel with the Americas, called the Columbian Exchange, brought useful plants and animals from distant continents.

Age of sail/​ Improvements in technology allowed wind power to substitute sails for oars. Better compasses, maps, and understanding of wind patterns made sailing more productive. Advances in sails made it possible to tack into the wind. Invention of the sea astrolabe allowed sailors to determine their latitude, and it was used by Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci during the Age of Discovery. The development of shipping insurance spread the risk of specific voyages.

Following the trips of Columbus (1492) and Vasco de Gama (1498), Magellan’s crew (1519) circumnavigated the world. Evidence from these trips was followed by the important discovery by Copernicus in 1543 that the Earth revolves around the Sun, which centers the solar system.

In Germany, the invention of moveable type and the printing press around the year 1440 would ultimately lead to the Industrial Revolution. More books were produced in the next 50 years than in the previous 1,000. Leigh informs us that Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation influenced the spread of reading by encouraging Christians to read the Bible for themselves. The Reformation boosted literacy and economic levels in Protestant Germany. In Germany today, 500 years after Luther, Protestant areas have higher incomes than Catholic areas.

Development of laws to protect property rights were important to the development of capitalism. Property rights were extended from physical property to intellectual property with the introduction of patent laws in Venice in 1474. It rewarded the creation of useful new ideas with a temporary monopoly over their use.

Industrial Revolution/​ Before publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, economic growth was relatively rare. Japan’s average income in 1700 was about equal to its average income back in 1,000. This lack of sustained economic growth changed with the Industrial Revolution. Life expectancy at birth doubled. Average real income increased 14-fold.

The Industrial Revolution began with a series of interlocking revolutions: agricultural, urban, and commercial. New ideas were rapidly shared and improved. The British economist Alfred Marshall described this process as a technological revolution.

Examples of innovations in the 1880s included: coal power, steam engines, factories, modern shipping, trains, and electric motors. These advances ultimately fueled the substantial productivity gains of the 1920s. A similar productivity improvement after a lag occurred later for computers.

The pursuit of self-interest is a key component of capitalism. Adam Smith stressed the importance of restraining self-interest with institutions such as competition, both domestic and foreign (trade). Other institutions vital to the Industrial Revolution included capital markets that allowed firms to raise current funds in expectation of future revenue. Insurance allowed firms and individuals to hedge against risk. Law courts were necessary to resolve disputes. Insurance was a formal way to share risk. Private property rights for both physical and intellectual property were important. Introduction of the corporate form made it easier for firms to borrow by limiting the liability of individual shareholders.

Successful innovations in production lowered costs, but they always hurt someone associated with the displaced technology. Many innovations were strongly resisted by harmed parties, who even used violence in extreme cases. A prominent example is the Luddites, who destroyed textile machinery that threatened their jobs. Support for tariffs and other barriers to international trade has been a common response to successful innovations from abroad. Although tariffs have a negative net economic effect on a country, special-interest minorities sometimes acquire political power that allows them to dominate majorities who would benefit from the innovation. In Frédéric Bastiat’s satirical “Petition of the Candlemakers,” threatened workers requested that windows be covered to prevent free sunlight from destroying their jobs.

The British Corn Laws, which tariffed and placed restrictions on imported grains, were favored by the few (landholders) over the many (most everyone else). When the Corn Laws were abolished in 1846, the richest 10 percent of Britons lost, but the poorest 90 percent gained.

Migration/​ Migration of people, as well as plants, animals, and ideas, has been a major source of economic growth. However, international migration has often been opposed by domestic workers who fear losing their jobs. We see this, of course, today when the foreign-born population (legal plus illegal) is 15.8 percent of the population, which is higher than the earlier peaks in 1890 and 1910.

In addition to geographical mobility, occupational mobility has been a major source of economic growth that has also been opposed by workers who attempt to protect their jobs and earnings by limiting entry to their occupations. Labor unions, licensing requirements, and other limits to skill acquisition have been used to block entry into occupations.

Data since 1776 show that market economies with competition have been more prosperous than controlled economies. Leigh claims that democracies are richer and spend more on health and education than controlled economies. He also claims that democratic institutions limit wars relative to autocracies. Never in history have two fully democratic countries gone to war against each other. Wars are negative sum activities.

The Industrial Revolution brought major economic gains, but it also brought industrial-scale warfare that included the use of mass-produced weapons, railroads, steamships, and the telegraph. More than 600,000 combatants lost their lives in the American Civil War.

Inherited status/​ Early class systems based people’s status on their parents. Most modern capitalistic systems that disapprove of inherited status result in increased social mobility. Today the highest levels of social mobility occur in Scandinavia and the lowest in Africa. In certain countries and time periods, race has determined social status.

The British Corn Laws were abolished in 1846 to the benefit of most people. About the same time, Japan abolished its rigid caste system that restricted participation in the economy and opened its economy to the world. In 1855 the UK established the Limited Liability Act that established the corporate form of business. In the United States, the Sherman Antitrust Act limited the market power of firms.

Modern economy/​ Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics (1890) described the interaction between supply and demand and showed the interaction between price and quantity. The Federal Reserve was created in 1913 to deal with banking crises. Occasional crises had occurred because commercial banks offered short-term (liquid) deposits, but they made long-term (illiquid) loans, leaving them vulnerable to bank runs. Deposit insurance was introduced, reassuring depositors.

In the 20th century, central banks took on the additional responsibility of stabilizing national economies. Some modern central banks have been more successful at this than others. Some with less independence from the central government, such as Germany and Argentina, have produced hyperinflation because of their monetary stimulus.

Other innovations during the period included department stores promising that the customer is always right. Some stores, such as Woolworths, that stressed lower prices were called “five-and-dime” stores.

Other developments weren’t as benign. Cigarettes became common, and heroin was used as a cough suppressant. Cocaine was an ingredient of Coca-Cola (which was created as a pain tonic) until the early 1900s. One expert claimed that in 1913 nearly one-quarter of US doctors were addicted to morphine.

Mass migration to the United States before World War I was partly a response to lower transport costs as a result of new ships powered by coal. The time necessary to travel from Liverpool to New York declined from 53 days in 1850 to eight days in 1910.

Growth of globalization ended with World War I in 1914, and immigration barriers were imposed in the United States in 1924. In general, globalization has been slowed by wars, natural disasters, and bouts of protectionism.

Great Depression/​ In the Roaring ’20s, Yale economist Irving Fisher claimed that stock prices had reached a “permanently higher plateau.” Not long after came the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. The crash was followed by the Smoot–Hawley tariff legislation that was signed by President Herbert Hoover against opposing signatures of 1,000 economists. The tariffs served to worsen the Depression.

The Great Depression was a huge shock to the United States and world economies. In 1932, the election of Franklin Roosevelt led to the New Deal. It included many new spending programs, such as Social Security. The ideas of British economist John Maynard Keynes influenced many of those spending policies.

Globalization/​ The economic shock of World War II disturbed globalization, and post-war institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and World Trade Organization (WTO) were part of an attempt to restore globalization.

The Glorious 30 Years (1949–1978) included major technical change that affected the labor force participation of women. This included electric stoves, vacuum cleaners, running water, refrigerators, and supermarkets, which simplified household work. By providing greater control over when to have children, oral contraceptives and other advances in birth control contributed to the fall in the fertility rate to below the replacement rate of 2.1 in the United States. Large declines in fertility occurred in all the high-income countries of the world. Interestingly, in countries like China, public policy quickly reversed itself from discouraging childbirth to subsidizing it.

Globalization dominated the period, but not all innovations during this period were successful. China’s Great Leap Forward (1958–1962) under Mao Zedong brought a disastrous famine that resulted in the deaths of 15–45 million people, according to various estimates. Other failed reforms occurred in Cuba, North Korea, and Argentina.

Markets everywhere/​ Both the Reagan government in the United States and the Thatcher government in the United Kingdom carried out globalization and free market domestic policies. Free market economist Milton Friedman was an adviser to both governments. Unfortunately, we have seen a backsliding in this economic liberalism over the last decade, especially in the United States.

In the East, the Asian Tigers—Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea—reformed their economies and grew rapidly, in contrast to neighboring China. In 1978, China under Deng Xiaoping turned toward a market economy and globalization. A Chinese reformer observed that when everything was owned collectively under the old system, people’s philosophy was: “Work hard, don’t work hard—everyone gets the same. So, people don’t want to work.” That changed as China liberalized its economy.

In 1994, the WTO was created, and financial power shifted to Asia. China made major economic reforms that allowed domestic production to respond to world demand. It received Most Favored Nation status, reducing other nations’ trade barriers against it, and it joined the WTO in 2001.

Under Deng, China experienced a successful transition from a planned economy to “market-based socialism.” Starting in 2013, it experienced several years of 9 percent economic growth. China rose from being one of the poorest countries in the world to a GDP per capita above the world average in 2024. It also became the world’s largest exporter. But Deng died in 1997, and the country took a step back after Xi Jinping took over in 2012, with the economy evolving into a kind of state capitalism.

Inequality/​ World population grew from 1 billion in 1800 to 8 billion today. In 1800, no country had a life expectancy over 40 years, but today every nation has at least a 40-year life expectancy. The distribution of income has changed both across countries and within countries. Asia was once the poorest continent, but rapid Asian economic growth has moved it ahead Africa.

Most countries have experienced an increase in economic inequality, and Russia is an extreme case. Leigh claims that “Putin’s Russia is probably more unequal today than the nation ruled by Tsar Nicholas I. Since the end of communism in 1989, 99% of Russian growth has gone to the top tenth of income earners.” Russia’s current economy has been described as “crony capitalism.” It severely limits competition, and it invites bribery and corruption.

Climate change/​ Leigh acknowledges major natural climate changes over human and geological history, including multiple ice ages. However, he cites evidence that recent global warming is overwhelmingly attributable to human activity. Recent global warming has increased much faster than the warmings that followed the ice ages. Greenhouse gas emissions are a serious externality that represents a major failure of humans to cooperate. It is sometimes described as a “market failure,” but businesses cannot control global emissions by themselves. That would require cooperation by governments of the major polluters, such as China and the United States. There are treaties in place to address the issue, but so far there has been no significant lowering of global emissions. This unfortunate result could be described as “government failure.”

Leigh presents an informative section on recent developments in the economic role of women, stressing the work of Nobel economics laureate Claudia Goldin. The gender pay gap has narrowed over time as women have acquired more education. There continues to be a motherhood penalty that is greater in occupations in which it is most difficult to combine career and family. Greater opportunities for women have contributed to declines in birth rates in the United States and all high-income countries. Leigh points out that household work is not included in GDP, with the anomalous result that if a woman hired to do household work marries her employer, measured GDP goes down.

Conclusion/​ Leigh’s three goals for the book are to tell how capitalism and the market system developed, discuss ideas and people who shaped the discipline of economics, and outline how economic forces have shaped the world. He does an admirable job of achieving all three goals.

He emphasizes the major improvements in life over time, starting with large increases in life expectancy. Quality of life has also increased as innovations such as modern plumbing, refrigeration, washing machines and dryers, and air conditioning quickly went from being luxuries to standard in many countries.

Market economies in which voluntary trade dominates coercion and central planning are shown to produce greater prosperity. However, protectionism—whose policies allow special-interest minorities to dominate majorities—sometimes win elections. Some old ideas such as the mercantilist claim that trade deficits are harmful die hard. Modern Luddites continue to resist technological change to protect their jobs. Economic progress is also interrupted by wars and natural disasters.

Leigh covered a huge amount of historical ground, and he did it well. Interested readers can learn a great deal from this book’s relatively few pages.