Description
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) was one of America’s most famous economists for good reason. From his acerbic analysis of America’s “private wealth and public squalor” to his denunciation of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, Galbraith consistently challenged “conventional wisdom” (a phrase he coined). He did so as a witty commentator on America’s political follies and as a versatile author of bestselling books—such as The Affluent Society and The New Industrial State—that warn of the dangers of deregulated markets, corporate greed, and inattention to the costs of our military power. Here, in the first full-length biography of Galbraith and his times, Richard Parker provides not only a nuanced portrait of this extraordinary man, but also an important reinterpretation of twentieth-century public policy and economic practices.
“Whatever you may think of his ideas, John Kenneth Galbraith has led an extraordinary life. . . . Doing justice to this life story requires an outsize biography, one that not only tells Mr. Galbraith’s tale but sets it on the broader canvas of America’s political and economic evolution. And Richard Parker’s book does just that.”—Economist
“Parker’s book is more than a chronicle of Galbraith’s life; it’s a history of American politics and policy from FDR through George W. Bush. . . . It will make readers more economically and politically aware.”—USA Today
“The most readable and instructive biography of the century.”—William F. Buckley, National Review
“The story of this man’s life and work is wonderfully rendered in this magnum opus, and offers an antidote to the public ennui, economic cruelty, and government malfeasance that poison life in America today.”—James Carroll, Boston Globe
About the Author
Richard Parker is an Oxford-trained economist and senior fellow of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. A cofounder of the magazine Mother Jones, he writes extensively on economics and public policy.
Praise For…
"I was initially skeptical about the book's 820 pages . . . but every detail is justified and every digression fascinating. . . . Reading Parker's comprehensive account of the 20th century's economic battles, I can't help thinking that this ought to be Galbraith's moment."
— Thomas Frank
"Richard Parker's rich, fascinating, authorized biography of the most famous economist since John Maynard Keynes tells a terrific story—actually dozens of them—and opens a compelling window on the course of 20th Century American liberalism."—Warren Goldstein, Chicago Tribune
— Warren Goldstein
“The most readable and instructive biography—certainly of the century. . . . . The book is deeply and intimately informative.”
— William F. Buckley
“Wonderfully rendered. . . . Offers an antidote to the public ennui, economic cruelty, and government malfeasance that poison life in America today.”
— Boston Globe
“Parker’s book is more than a chronicle of Galbraith’s life; it’s a history of American politics and policy from FDR through George W. Bush. . . . It will make readers more economically and politically aware.”
— USA Today
"[This] work is no less than the intellectual history of economics from the disintegration of orthodoxy during the Great Depression to the rise and fall of the Keynesian alternative. The book is a well-written, even indispensable, guide to the intellectual controversies that marked the discipline of economics over the past one hundred years."
— Gregory R. Zieren
"[Parker] turns Galbraith's life into a remarkably well-written and deeply researched tale of one of the most influential economists of the century. As should any excellent buiography, it not only traces the life of the subject but also situates that life in the broader context of events. . . . The result is a rich and detailed economic and political history of the Unted States in the 20th century, with Galbraith at the center of it."
— Steven Horwitz