When Robert Heilbroner died several years ago, obituaries announced the death of the famous American economist and sociologist. But millions of grateful readers around the world knew him primarily as the author of “Philosophers of This World” - an amazing story about the destinies and ideas of the titans of economic thought. It is also surprising because the total circulation of Heilbroner's book amounted to several million copies, clearly refuting the myth that economics is a gloomy and uninteresting science. In the pages of The Philosophers, great theories coexist with descriptions of the bizarre antics of their authors; Figures that seemed like characters from historical works acquire their unique outlines. The eternally absent-minded Adam Smith and the grumpy Karl Marx, the brilliant David Ricardo and John Maynard Keynes changed our world, and the story about them is unlikely to leave indifferent both students and those who all their lives wanted to learn more about economics, but were afraid to look into thick, volumes stuffed with formulas.