Greetings!
I'm considering writing a paper (I'm a busines school student) on following the evolution of economic thought.
The general topic of my paper will be examining spontaneous order and how modern economists are peculiar in their "free markets work most of the time" thinking. I want to include a nice chunk about how economics as a field evolved.
Any suggested readings? (books, journals, articles ANYTHING :] )
One major exception to markets working is monopolies. This is the general reason why you can't have totally free markets... check out dilorenzo's myth of natural monopoly. He also has a great youtube lecture by the same name.
Murray Rothbard's volume 1 and 2 of his Austrian History of Economic Thought might be a good reference as well.
"Man thinks not only for the sake of thinking, but also in order to act."-Ludwig von Mises
This website has sections on Economic History, The History of Economic Thought, and Overview of the Austrian School of Economics.
If you can get your hands on a copy of Schumpeter's History of Economic Analysis that's a good place to start, along with Rothbard's An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (two volumes). Also, for a Keynesian perspective I would suggest Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia, but unfortunately the website is down (it is supposed to be published at some point in the future). DeLong's book, however, deals with economic thought during the 20th Century. Also, Hayek published Trend of Economic Thinking, which deals with classical economic thought and is built largely on the research of the marginalists - especially Jevons.
Mark Skousen has a good book that does a nice job summarizing modern econ since Adam Smith (He barely touches anything prior to Smith so read Rothbard's book!). His The Making of Modern Economics is readable and entertaining, and is loaded with useful info. It is a decent antidote to Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers, which I would still recommend in order to contrast with a quasi-socialist view. You can also check out his site portal The History Economic Thought which is hoseted by the New School. They actually have a decent write up on the Spanish Scholastics.
"La cuestión es siempre la misma: que el gobierno o el mercado. No hay tercera solución." -Ludwig von Mises