In The Trend of Economic Thinking Hayek presents many of the figures that influenced the development of his economic thought. The articles range from well-known economists such as Mandeville, Hume, Smith, and Bastiat, to lesser-known figures such as Dupuit and Gossen, showing the breadth of Hayek's study of the history of economic thought. F. A. Hayek (1899–1992) was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974 and the Medal of Freedom in 1991 and was one of the leading Austrian economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century. W. W. Bartley, III (1934–1990) was a Professor of Philosophy and a Senior Research Fellow at Stanford University and an author. Stephen Kresge was the General Editor of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek until his retirement in 2002.