The Worldly Philosophers

The Emperor's New Mind, by Roger Penrose The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra Dancing Wu Li Masters, by Gary Zukav The Naked Ape, by Desmond Morris The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich Hayek The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner The Story of Philosophy, by Will Durant Grammatical Man, by Jeremy Campbell Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

That's a pretty good list, though I have to take exception to your suggestions for heterodox economics all coming from the Hayek-Mises-Rothbard Austrian/Libertarian tradition. There's considerably more to heterodox economics than Libertarian school. "Heterodox economics" is an umbrella term used to cover various approaches, schools, or traditions. These include socialist, Marxian, institutional, evolutionary, Georgist, Austrian, feminist,[3] social, post-Keynesian (not to be confused with New Keynesian),[2] and ecological economics among others.[4] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterodox_economics Steve Keen offers a fairly compelling criticism in Debunking Economics. Ha-Joon Chang, of LSE, has several books providing criticisms and overviews of economics, his Economics: the user's guide is a light and readable overview. http://www.worldcat.org/title/economics-the-users-guide/oclc... (http://www.worldcat.org/title/economics-the-users-guide/oclc/870896694&referer=brief_results) (It's worth noting that Ha-Joon Chang tends toward a Marxian view and in particular is a contrarian in trade and development concepts. I happen to think his views have merits.)…

The Worldly Philosophers, by Robert Heilbroner - http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic-Th... (http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic-Thinkers/dp/068486214X)

Along with the excellent recommendations here, I would add "The Worldly Philosophers" by Heilbroner (http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic-Th... (http://www.amazon.com/Worldly-Philosophers-Lives-Economic-Thinkers/dp/068486214X)) for a slightly different angle. It covers a wide range of famous economists and describes the high points of their theories along with some biographical detail, in a very engaging style. It's the economics version of "Men Of Mathematics", which is also a fascinating book.