Chris Giles, Financial Times
[This book] explains [Nash's] work and reprints his most famous papers. It is just as amazing as his personal story.


Ariel Rubinstein, The Times Higher Education Supplement
One of the most beautifully designed economics books I have ever seen and at a low price.


Review
One of the most beautifully designed economics books I have ever seen and at a low price. . . . Why are we so intrigued by the story of John Nash? We are curious to understand a person who proves theorems we are unable to fathom. We imagine the voices from another world he has heard. We ask where he was for 30 years during which he walked among us but wasn¹t here. We are frightened and we are attracted by this combination of 'crazy' and 'genius', an invitation for visiting the edge of our own minds.


Book Description
When John Nash won the Nobel prize in economics in 1994, many people were surprised to learn that he was alive and well. Since then, Sylvia Nasar's celebrated biography, the basis of a new major motion picture, has revealed the man. The Essential John Nash reveals his work--in his own words. This book presents, for the first time, the full range of Nash's diverse contributions not only to game theory, for which he received the Nobel, but to pure mathematics, in which he commands even greater acclaim among academics. Included are nine of Nash's most influential papers, most of them written over the decade beginning in 1949. From 1959 until his astonishing remission three decades later, the man behind the concepts "Nash equilibrium" and "Nash bargaining"--concepts that today pervade not only economics but nuclear strategy and contract talks in major league sports--had lived in the shadow of a condition diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. In the introduction to this book, Nasar recounts how Nash had, by the age of thirty, gone from being a wunderkind at Princeton and a rising mathematical star at MIT to the depths of mental illness. In his preface, Harold Kuhn offers personal insights on his longtime friend and colleague; and in introductions to several of Nash's papers, he provides scholarly context. In an afterword, Nash describes his current work, and he discusses an error in one of his papers. A photo essay chronicles Nash's career from his student days in Princeton to the present. Also included are Nash's Nobel citation and autobiography. The Essential John Nash makes it plain why one of Nash's colleagues termed his style of intellectual inquiry as "like lightning striking." All those inspired by Nash's dazzling ideas will welcome this unprecedented opportunity to trace these ideas back to the exceptional mind they came from.


From the Inside Flap
"John Nash's creative work in game theory has of course had the most profound influence on both its mathematics and its practical applications in economics. It is very good to see his work in this area joined with his other mathematical contributions in a single volume, to give a more rounded perspective."--Kenneth J. Arrow, 1972 Nobel Laureate in Economics "These papers are among the most important original contributions to mathematics of the twentieth century. They have been extremely influential and their influence continues to grow."--Joseph J. Kohn, Princeton University "John Nash has attracted enormous popular interest over the past few years. In many ways, the notion of equilibrium in game theory that bears his name is the central concept in game theory, which has led to a revolution in the field of economics. This book, by bringing together Nash's work in game theory and in mathematics, will allow readers to appreciate the scope of his work."--David M. Kreps, Stanford Business School


About the Author
Harold W. Kuhn is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Princeton University. Winner of the 1980 von Neumann Prize in Theory, he is the editor of several books (all Princeton), including Classics in Game Theory, Linear Inequalities and Related Systems, Contributions to the Theory of Games, I and II, and is the author of Lectures on the Theory of Games (forthcoming, Princeton). Sylvia Nasar tells the story of Nash's life in A Beautiful Mind (Simon & Schuster), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A former economics reporter for the New York Times, she was recently named the John S. and Jean L. Knight Professor of Journalism at Columbia University.


Excerpted from The Essential John Nash by John Nash, Harold William Kuhn, Sylvia Nasar. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Essential John NashEdited by Harold W. Kuhn and Sylvia Nasar
CHAPTER 1 Press Release—The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 11 October 1994 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, 1994, jointly to Professor John C. Harsanyi, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, Dr. John F. Nash, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, Professor Dr. Reinhard Selten, Rheinische Friedrich-Willhelms-Universität, Bonn, Germany, for their pioneering analysis of equilibria in the theory of non-cooperative games. Games as the Foundation for Understanding Complex Economic Issues Game theory emanates from studies of games such as chess or poker. Everyone knows that in these games, players have to think ahead—devise a strategy based on expected countermoves from the other player(s). Such strategic interaction also characterizes many economic situations, and game theory has therefore proved to be very useful in economic analysis. The foundations for using game theory in economics were introduced in a monumental study by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern entitled Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1944). Today, 50 years later, game theory has become a dominant tool for analyzing economic issues. In particular, non-cooperative game theory (i.e., the branch of game theory that excludes binding agreements) has had great impact on economic research. The principal aspect of this theory is the concept of equilibrium, which is used to make predictions about the outcome of strategic interaction. John F. Nash, Reinhard Selten, and John C. Harsanyi are three researchers who have made eminent contributions to this type of equilibrium analysis. John F. Nash introduced the distinction between cooperative games, in which binding agreements can be made, and non-cooperative games, where binding agreements are not feasible. Nash developed an equilibrium concept for non-cooperative games that later came to be called Nash equilibrium. Reinhard Selten was the first to refine the Nash equilibrium concept for analyzing dynamic strategic interaction. He has also applied these refined concepts to analyses of competition with only a few sellers. John C. Harsanyi showed how games of incomplete information can be analyzed, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for a lively field of research—the economics of information—which focuses on strategic situations where different agents do not know each other’s objectives. .  .  . John Nash arrived at Princeton University in 1948 as a young doctoral student in mathematics. The results of his studies are reported in his doctoral dissertation entitled Non-Cooperative Games (1950). The thesis gave rise to “Equilibrium Points in n-Person Games” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 1950), and to an article entitled “Non-Cooperative Games” (Annals of Mathematics, 1951). In his dissertation, Nash introduced the distinction between cooperative and non-cooperative games. His most important contribution to the theory of non-cooperative games was to formulate a universal solution concept with an arbitrary number of players and arbitrary preferences (i.e., not solely for two-person zero-sum games). This solution concept later came to be called Nash equilibrium. In a Nash equilibrium, all of the players’ expectations are fulfilled and their chosen strategies are optimal. Nash proposed two interpretations of the equilibrium concept: one based on rationality and the other on statistical populations. According to the rationalistic interpretation, the players are perceived as rational and they have complete information about the structure of the game, including all of the players’ preferences regarding possible outcomes, where this information is common knowledge. Since all players have complete information about each other’s strategic alternatives and preferences, they can also compute each other’s optimal choice of strategy for each set of expectations. If all of the players expect the same Nash equilibrium, then there are no incentives for anyone to change his strategy. Nash’s second interpretation—in terms of statistical populations—is useful in so-called evolutionary games. This type of game has also been developed in biology in order to understand how the principles of natural selection operate in strategic interaction within and among species. Moreover, Nash showed that for every game with a finite number of players, there exists an equilibrium in mixed strategies. .  .  . Through their contributions to equilibrium analysis in non-cooperative game theory, the three laureates constitute a natural combination: Nash provided the foundations for the analysis, while Selten developed it with respect to dynamics, and Harsanyi with respect to incomplete information.

FROM OUR EDITORS

This fascinating collection of John Nash's papers on game theory and mathematics was edited by his friend and colleague Harold Kuhn, professor emeritus of mathematics at Princeton, and Sylvia Nasar, author of /booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?&isbn=0743224574">A Beautiful Mind. It includes his nine most influential papers (one of which was featured in the 2002 motion picture), along with a photo essay on Nash's career and an afterword by Nash himself.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

When John Nash received the Nobel prize in economics in 1994, many people were surprised to learn that he was alive and well. Since then, Sylvia Nasar's celebrated biography A Beautiful Mind has revealed the man. The Essential John Nash reveals his work -- in his own words. This book presents, for the first time, the full range of Nash's diverse contributions not only to game theory, for which he received the Nobel, but to pure mathematics, in which he commands even greater acclaim among academics. Included are nine of Nash's most influential papers, most of them written over the decade beginning in 1949.

From 1959 until his astonishing remission three decades later, the man behind the concepts "Nash equilibrium" and "Nash bargaining" -- concepts that today pervade not only economics and mathematics but nuclear strategy and even owner-player talks in major league sports -- had lived in the shadow of a debilitating condition diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenia. In the introduction to this volume, Nasar tells the story of how Nash had, by the age of thirty, gone from being a wunderking at Princeton and a rising mathematical star at MIT to the depths of mental illness.

In his preface, Princeton University mathematician Harold Kuhn offers personal insights on his longtime friend and colleague; and in introductions to several of Nash's papers, he provides helpful scholarly context. Among the highlights is Nash's Princeton thesis, "Non-Cooperative Games," which brilliantly surpassed the earlier work of von Neumann and Morgenstern. In an afterword, Nash himself describes his current work; and in a separate note, he discusses a recently discovered error in one of his papers. A photo essay chronicles Nash's career from his student days in Princeton to the present. Also included are Nash's Nobel citation and Nobel autobiography.

The Essential John Nash makes it plain why one of Nash's colleagues termed his style of intellectual inquiry as "like lightning striking." It was in this style that Nash solved problems mainstream mathematicians had long deemed unsolvable. All those inspired by Nash's dazzling ideas will welcome this unprecedented opportunity to trace these ideas back to the exceptional mind they came from.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

John Nash's creative work in game theory has of course had the most profound influence on both its mathematics and its practical applications in economics. It is very good to see his work in this area joined with his other mathematical contributions in a single volume, to give a more rounded perspective.--Kenneth J. Arrow, 1972 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences — Kenneth J. Arrow

John Nash has attracted enormous popular interest over the past few years. In many ways, the notion of equilibrium in game theory that bears his name is the central concept in game theory, which has led to a revolution in the field of economics. This book, by bringing together Nash's work in game theory and in mathematics, will allow readers to appreciate the scope of his work.--David M. Kreps, Stanford Business School  — David M. Kreps