Economics: An Introductory Analysis.

Paul Samuelson is one of the developers of both neo-Keynesian and neoclassical economics, the latter of which still dominates mainstream economics. "More than anyone else he bears responsibility for the mathematical bent of economics in the late 20th century In all his professional work, Samuelson sought to provide mathematical underpinnings for economic ideas, believing that economic theory without formalizations was unsystematic and unclear" (Pressman, Fifty Major Economists, 162-63). Samuelson was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for having written considerable parts of economic theory. One of these contributions was that he generalized and applied mathematical methods developed for the study of thermodynamics to the field of economics. His inspiration for doing so came, in part, from his mentor, polymath Edwin Bisdwell Wilson who was a former Yale student of the founder of chemical thermodynamics, Willard Gibbs. Samuelson, therefore, is a successful example of interdisciplinarity, and he combined these ideas in his magnum opus Foundations of Economic Analysis (1947). A year later, Samuelson published Economics: An Introductory Approach, and "it soon became the most successful textbook ever published in any field No other book has contributed so much to the emergence of a universal body of economic knowledge that is considered standard wherever teaching and learning are free. There are several reasons for this success. No other comprehensive introduction was written by one of the world's foremost modern theorists (Hicks' Social Framework covering only a fraction of the ground). This theorist, furthermore, is a superb expositor who knows how to weave theory, discussion, facts, and history into an exciting tale" (Niehans, 423-24).