This excerpt originally appeared in The Washington Times on June 18, 2012.

George Mason economist Lawrence H. White provides a masterful treatment of the struggle between different approaches and different schools of thought. Mr. White’s book is an uneasy cocktail: He beautifully mixes history of economic thinking, political history and bites of biography (each chapter begins with a vignette) that humanize economists for his readers but also convey a sense of the real excitement that research and policy advocacy can engender.