A List of 'Principles of Economics' Books Since 1776

Note: If anyone is unfamiliar with the names of famous economists mentioned in this post, I suggest New Ideas from Dead Economists by Todd Buchholz as an approachable intro to the history of economic thought. More famous but less accessible to the layman is Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers. Or you can look up individual names in this online encyclopedia.

Greg Mankiw has written The standard introductory economics book for undergraduates today, Principles of Economics. While a Ph.D. student, Dan Hirschman, inspired by Mankiw's ability to succinctly summarize the fundamental definitions and deep, central insights of the economics discipline into 10 short sentences, attempted to do the same for sociology—with less financial success, but definitely a worthwhile read.

When Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, economics was still considered a branch of philosophy, but that didn't stop many of his successors from quickly churning out books with the same bold title, Principles.[1]  David Ricardo (1817), Thomas Malthus (1820), John Stuart Mill (1848), and other "Classical" economists all wrote their own Principles of Political Economy.[2] Later, Carl Menger (1871) and Alfred Marshall (1920) dropped the "Political" from their titles (and coincidentally began the "Neoclassical" school of thought), and Marshall's Principles was the standard textbook until Paul Samuelson dropped the seminal Foundations of Economic Analysis in 1947 and the more user-friendly Economics in 1948. And we've never been the same since.

So, there were many Principles books before Mankiw's, but most undergraduates and even full-fledged economists will never read even one of them. What deep insights, if any, did these tomes contain? Are they still worthwhile reads to a budding economist? Have any of their ideas been lost to the whims of an indifferent academia?

For posterity, here is a list of them all that I will be updating as (and if) I discover more:

1. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation by Ricardo (1817);
2. Principles of Political Economy by Malthus (1820);
3. Elements of Political Economy by James Mill (1821);[3]
4. Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill (1848);
5. Principles of Economics by Menger (1871);
6. Principles of Economics by Marshall (1920);
7. Economics by Samuelson (1948);
8. Principles of Economics by Mankiw (1998).[4]

I will update this list when I can. Years in parentheses are the original publication dates, but the most recent editions are probably the ones that should be read.

One day, I might have the chance to attempt to read one or all of these books. For now, I think it's useful to compile a list of all Principles books so that someone might one day feel obliged to crack one open in search of any deep insight. I do realize that the opportunity cost of attempting to read verbose and ambiguous old books might be high, but there is evidence that, for instance, actually reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations might lead us to a new and improved model of trade and development (Reinhard, 2012), although the extent to which Krugman and Romer have failed to incorporate all of Smith's useful ideas into their own models remains to be seen (by me).

Updates: 

i.) John Bates Clark (yes, that one) wrote Essentials of Economic Theory in 1907. I might add it to this list, but I might be pushing it with the title.

ii.) I've found The Principles of Feminist Economics and Principles of Black Political Economy. Both important and relevant, and most likely set to be added to the list.

Footnotes:

[1] - These titles always remind me of Newton's Principia. There's probably no direct connection, but those who insist economists have "physics envy" will find solace nevertheless.

[2] - Ricardo's was actually called On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. I say it still counts.

[3] - I've added this book to the original list. Although not including "Principles" in its name, James Mill's Elements was clearly written with the same grand goal as the Principles books. From the preface to the 3rd edition in 1844, Mill confesses, "My object has been to compose a school-book of Political Economy, to detach the essential principles of the science from all extraneous topics, to state the propositions clearly and in their logical order, and to subjoin its demonstration to each." [Emphasis mine.] This stated purpose combined with the title's strong similarity to the others' earns it a spot on this list, and so I proceed to find others meeting the same criteria.

[4] - The 1st edition was published in 1998, but he has been putting out new editions every 2 years or so, in typical modern textbook fashion.

References:

Schumacher, Reinhard. (2012). "Adam Smith's Theory of Absolute Advantage and the Use of Doxography in the History of Economics." Erasmus Journal for Philosophy of Economics 5(2), 54-80.