This book is a bold call for a revolution in economics by returning to its past. Economics is primed for a revolution, says respected economic forecaster John D. Mueller. To make this leap forward will require looking backward, for as Redeeming Economics reveals, the most important element of economic theory has been ignored for more than two centuries. Since the great Adam Smith tore down this pillar of economic thought, economic theory has had no way to account for a fundamental aspect of human experience: the social relationships that define us, the loves (and hates) that motivate and distinguish us as persons. In trying to reduce human behavior to mere exchanges, modern economists have lost sight of how these essential motivations are expressed: as gifts (or their opposite, crimes). Mueller makes economics whole again, masterfully reapplying economic thought as articulated by Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas. Contrarian and compelling, Redeeming Economics covers everything from unemployment, to inflation, to the economics of parenthood, to the greatest geopolitical challenge facing the United States, to flaws in the mega-bestseller Freakonomics, to the author's illuminating exchange with the controversial philosopher Peter Singer.