Why should you read a book on economic growth? Because the subject is important: it is about the well-being of our societies today and in the future; and because it is beautiful. It carries wonderful ideas, some exposed more than 2000 years ago, spanning all civilizations. You will certainly marvel at Ibn Khaldun’s prescience, at Mo Tzu’s wisdom, at Solow’s depiction of transition phases, at Dorfman’s incredible intuition in solving variational problems. This book is not quite the same as other books. Economic growth has attracted, particularly in the last hundred years, countless, excellent writers who have developed the field into an immense array of topics, from theoretical to empirical. Rather than trying to cover all developments – of which you can have an idea through the bibliography – I have wanted to tell you what I found fascinating in the subject. But my hope is also that you will find here a useful introduction to this wide area of research, because a lot of the book is not only on ideas but on methodology as well.