This book is the summation of a life's work by a distinguished economist. In it he surveys the important theorists in economics from David Hume and Adam Smith to the present, and explores how they chose to deal or not to deal with the variables and problems posed by the dynamics of economic growth. Each of the three historical sections is organized differently according to the particular way in which growth theory was treated in each period. A concluding section deals with what the author considers the unsolved problems of growth theory and the economic agenda facing the world into the next century. It is Rostow's intention that this work stand alongside Schumpeter's "The History of Economic Analysis" as a landmark work in the history of economic theory.