Ask HN: Good books on economic history?

I liked deVries' The First Modern Economy - the first volume is great. It's not a pop-econ book, but rather a good hard look at the Dutch economy circa 1500s. A Concise Economic History of The World is also not a bad book, if a bit dry.

There are too some other cliometric books that I really liked but can't for the life of me recall it. There was another that was along the lines of Money and Market of All Times or something or like that, which I recommend for a quick skim through (not really worth a deep read - I'd treat it as the others already mentioned in this thread)

The Worldly Philosophers is my favorite. It will take you through economic history as told by its great philosophers and break down the differences between the schools of thought. It has been my trusted guide on economic theory for the last 15 years.

Here's a link on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Worldly-Philosophers-Economic-Thin...

I'll be watching this thread with interest myself, but one that I thoroughly enjoyed reading (and it's pretty short) is Dr. Strangelove's Game by Paul Strathern [1]. It is not particularly well known according to sites I frequent, and I think it's unfortunate.

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1193827.Dr_Strangelove_s...

Not sure how far back you want to go back but Debt: The First 5000 Years is a real tour de force of understanding how monetary relations were organised over a large number of different cultures and different times.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt:_The_First_5000_Years

Charles Kindelberger's "Manias, Panics & Crashes." Should be mandatory reading in HS. Starts with Minsky's theory of how economic bubbles occur and progress, then applies the theory beginning with the Tulip mania among the Dutch through to the modern era.

I liked the Ascent of Money.