History of Economic Thought analyses different thinkers and theories in the discipline that became political economy and economics from the ancient world to the present day. It encompasses many disparate schools of economic thought. Beginning with ancient civilizations we will progress historically to the present day, taking a broad view of what constitutes "economic thought," (e.g., a mixture of institutional, philosophical, policy-oriented, and "purely" theoretical) put into the general historical context of human affairs (political, religious, social, and scientific), noting major ideas and thinkers, emphasizing some thinkers more than is common, while sometimes "going off the beaten track."