I whole-heartedly recommend
The Worldly Philosophers by Robert L. Heilbroner.
This is one of my top five books of all time.
Contents
Introduction
The Economic Revolution
The Wonderful World of Adam Smith
The Gloomy Presentiments of Parson Malthus and David Ricardo
The Dreams of the Utopian Socialists
The Inexorable System of Karl Marx
The Victorian World and the Underworld of Economics
The Savage Society of Thorstein Veblen
The Heresies of John Maynard Keynes
The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter
The End of the Worldly Philosophy?
linkAnother I would recommend is
The Ominous Parrallels by Leonard Peikoff.
He does a good job of charting the course of the development of western philosophical thought.
In her introduction, Ayn Rand praises the book as offering “a truly revolutionary idea in the field of the philosophy of history.” What is that idea? It is the idea that philosophy is the motor of history—the fundamental cause of history’s major trends and the power that “determines the destiny of nations.” Because it addresses the most fundamental questions of man’s existence, philosophy sets the terms for all other fields of knowledge and for all human action.
link
"For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." - Patrick Henry
The level of injustice and wrong you endure is directly determined by how much you quietly submit to. Even to the point of extinction.