How Economics Explains the World tries to weave together two narratives:
It's a pleasure in the parts where it succeeds, as it does across the 20th Century, and especially from Keynes through Milton Freidman.
However, it only does so for a minority of the book. Before the 20th Century (and especially before Adam Smith), when the influence of economists was negligible, How Economics Explains the World is solely a story of technology and incentives, a sort of spark notes version of Guns, Germs, and Steel. And after the 20th Century, where both the scholarship and history are still unresolved, the two narratives can't be tied together neatly. In these portions, How Economics Explains the World is much less compelling.
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