Posted by EPL patron and guest blogger, Irv S.
John Kenneth Galbraith was a distinguished scholar, brilliant
writer, and prominent public servant. He exerted vast influence on his
students, other economists, our presidents, and the public.
He was born in Canada in
1908, awarded a doctorate in economics from Cal in 193 , and appointed to
a Harvard professorship and various policy-making positions in the federal
government. His early specialty was agricultural economics.
He draws on an extensive
background and vast experience in the writing of A JOURNEY THROUGH ECONOMIC TIME, A FIRSTHAND VIEW, published in 1994. The book deals primarily with the
period from 1914, the start of The Great War, through the early 1990's. He uses
the events of that period to describe and expound economic theories, with
some of which he agrees. As an important bureaucrat and an advisor to
presidents, he indeed provides a first hand view of policy-making and the
results thereof.
He explains the
significant role of the Great Depression in the allied victory in World War II,
contrasts the relationship between government and business in the Axis powers
with that in Great Britain and the U.S., and shows how the mistakes following
W.W.I were for the most part avoided after W.W.II.
The book is an excellent
read for anyone interested in 20th centuryhistory or modern economics in
general. It is not a dense treatise but an entertaining interpretation of
recent history concluding with some thoughtful suggestions for the future. I
enjoyed the book and learned a great deal from it.
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