The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

In this history of ideas, New York Times editorial writer Binyamin Appelbaum tells the story of the people who sparked four decades of economic revolution.

"Lively and entertaining." —The New Yorker

Before the 1960s, American politicians had never paid much attention to economists. But as the post-World War II boom began to sputter, economists gained influence and power.

In The Economists' Hour, Binyamin Appelbaum traces the rise of the economists, first in the United States and then around...