Introducing Economics

Economics shapes public debate, business decisions and everyday choices, yet its methods and assumptions are often disputed. This illustrated guide explains how the discipline developed, what its major schools of thought propose and why economists can reach sharply different conclusions about the same problem.

The narrative begins with ideas from the ancient world and follows the subject through the rise of modern political economy. It introduces the arguments associated with Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, placing them within the historical circumstances that made their theories influential.

Alongside established approaches, the book examines newer fields including ecological economics and complexity economics. These perspectives question simplified models of rational behaviour and stable markets, drawing attention to environmental limits, feedback loops and the unpredictable dynamics of interconnected systems.

The comic-book format combines concise explanations with visual commentary. It is designed to make concepts such as markets, value, growth, money, incentives and economic modelling easier to follow without reducing the subject to a list of definitions.

The guide also asks fundamental questions about the status of economics. Is it a science in the same sense as physics? How reliable are its forecasts? What can economic models reveal, and where can they mislead? The financial crisis provides a backdrop for considering the gap between theoretical confidence and real-world outcomes.

Rather than presenting one school as definitive, the book offers a compact history of competing ideas and shows how economic theories continue to influence policy and daily life. It is suitable for readers seeking an accessible overview of the field as well as a starting point for further study.