Predictably Rational? In Search of Defenses for Rational Behavior in Economics

From the reviews:

One reviewer (Nobel Laureate in Economics) described the book as a "massise effort," because of the breadth of the inquiry, covering from the intellectual history of the rationality premise (from Adam Smith to modern economists) to the evolutionary biology of the concept to the neurobiology/economics of the concept to the behavioral economics/psychology of the criticisms.

“McKenzie (Univ. of California, Irvine) defends homo economicus, the perfectly rational maximizer of self-interest, assumed in Chicago-style economics as the conceptual basis of efficient markets, rational expectations, and the efficacy of free market capitalism. … Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty and research collections.” (R. S. Hewett, Choice, Vol. 47 (11), July, 2010)