This history of theories and theorists of economic growth elucidates the economic theory, economic history, and public policy observations of the renowned scholar W. W. Rostow. Looking at the economic growth theories of the classic economists up to 1870, Rostow compares Hume and Adam Smith, Malthus and Ricardo, and J.S. Mill and Karl Marx. He then examines the period 1870-1939 and its economic theorists, including Schumpeter, Colin Clark, Kuznets, and Harrod, and surveys the three forms of growth analysis in the postwar era: formal models, statistical morphology, and development theories. This authoritative overview also includes an agenda of unresolved problems in growth analysis and a description of the five major tasks statesmen will confront over the next several generations.

Introduction; Part I: Six classical economists: David Hume to Karl Marx; David Hume and Adam Smith; T. R. Malthus and David Ricardo; Growth theory moves to the periphery, 1870-1939; The setting; Alfred Marshall (1842-1924); Population and the working force; Investment and technology, Part One: The emergence of national income accounting; Investment and technology, Part Two: Growth theory; J. S. Mill and Karl Marx; Part Three: Growth analysis post-1945: A three ring circus: Introduction; Formal models of economic growth: Rise and subsidence; Statistical analyses of the structure of growth: from morphology to policy - almost; Development economics; Business cycles and growth: from Juglar to Keynes; Business cycles and growth: Keynes and after; Relative prices; Stages of and limits to growth; Part Four: Problems and prospects; Two concluding questions; What don't we know about economic growth; Where are we? An agenda in mid-passage; Appendix: Models of economic growth; Rostow's theory of economic growth; The A. Smith model revisited; A rich country-poor country model