Economic History of the 20th Century: World War I, Great Depression, Keynesian Theory (1994) John Kenneth Ken Galbraith, OC (15 October 1908 -- 29 April 2006) was a Canadian and later, U.S., economist, public official and diplomat, and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s, during which time Galbraith fulfilled the role of public intellectual. In macro-economical terms he was a Keynesian and an institutionalist. Galbraith was a long-time Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics. He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books, including several novels, and published over a thousand articles and essays on various subjects. Among his most famous works was a popular trilogy on economics, American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958), and The New Industrial State (1967). Galbraith was active in Democratic Party politics, serving in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson; he served as United States Ambassador to India under the Kennedy administration. His prodigious literary output and outspokenness made him arguably the best-known economist in the world[4] during his lifetime.[5] Galbraith was one of few recipients both of the Medal of Freedom (1946) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000) for his public service and contribution to science. The government of France made him a Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur. Galbraith was an important figure in 20th-century institutional economics, and provided an exemplary institutionalist perspective on economic power.[40] Among his numerous writing, Galbraith cherished The New Industrial State and The Affluent Society as his two best.[41] As for the later works, economist and Galbraith friend Mike Sharpe visited him in 2004, on which occasion Galbraith gave Sharpe a copy of what would be Galbraith last book, The Economics of Innocent Fraud. Galbraith confided in Sharpe that this is my best book, an assertion Galbraith delivered a little mischievously.[42] After the beginning of the Great Recession of 2008 Galbraith The Great Crash, 1929 (1955) and other books containing warnings about the dangers of an unrestrained speculative mood without proper government oversight found an attentive reader again. In 2010, the Library of America published a new edition of Galbraith major works, edited by his son, James K. Galbraith: The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952--1967: American Capitalism, The Great Crash, 1929, The Affluent Society, and The New Industrial State.[43] On this occasion, Bill Moyers interviewed James K. Galbraith about his father, his works and legacy.[44] In American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power, published in 1952, Galbraith concluded that the American economy was managed by a triumvirate of big business, big labor, and an activist government. Galbraith defined the actions of the industry lobby groups and unions as countervailing power. He contrasted this arrangement with the previous pre-Depression era where big business had relatively free rein over the economy. His 1954 bestseller The Great Crash, 1929 describes the famous Wall Street meltdown of stock prices and how markets progressively become decoupled from reality in a speculative boom. The book is also a platform for Galbraith's keen insights, and humour, into human behavior when wealth is threatened. It has never been out of print. In his most famous work, The Affluent Society (1958), which also became a bestseller, Galbraith outlined his view that to become successful, post-World War II America should make large investments in items such as highways and education using funds from general taxation. Galbraith also critiqued the assumption that continually increasing material production is a sign of economic and societal health. Because of this Galbraith is sometimes considered one of the first post-materialists. In this book, he coined and popularized the phrase conventional wisdom.[45] Galbraith worked on the book while in Switzerland, and had originally titled it Why The Poor Are Poor but changed it to The Affluent Society at his wife's suggestion.[46] The Affluent Society contributed (likely to a significant degree, given that Galbraith had the ear of President Kennedy[8]) to the war on poverty, the government spending policy introduced by the administrations of Kennedy and Johnson.

• published: 06 Mar 2015
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