This book compiles prefaces written by Li Yining, a renowned Chinese economist, and his reading notes on Western economic literature while teaching courses on Western economic theories and the history of Western economics at Peking University since the 1980s. The content spans a broad spectrum of topics: it traces emergence and evolution of various Western economic schools across macroeconomics and microeconomics, elaborates on the pivotal theoretical perspectives of leading figures such as Keynes, Schumpeter, and Samuelson—whose ideas have exerted profound influence on the global economic landscape, delves into analyses of the labor markets, the relationship between employment and inflation, and the impact of Western economic theories on China’s economic system reform.