Review: John Maynard KeynesEditorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsThe second installment of Skidelsky's three-volume biography of the 20th century's most influential and controversial economist. As in the superb first volume (1986)--which took Keynes (1883-1946) through the immediate aftermath of WW I--Skidelsky (International Studies/University of Warwick) offers a perceptive portrait, one that here reveals a worldly-wise philosopher at the peak of his considerable powers. Focusing on Keynes the innovative, albeit pragmatic, thinker who abandoned any notion that classical economics was a body of knowledge rather than a method of analysis, the author provides accessible perspectives on how the economist involved himself in Whitehall's disastrous decision to return England to the gold standard in 1925; in the mass misery of the Depression; and in other great issues. Stressing his subject's constant efforts to devise an economic system that would tame capitalism's more savage features without unleashing socialism, Skidelsky shows how Keynes achieved international stature sufficient to affect FDR's New Deal and then went on to write a masterwork with remarkable staying power, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. In tracing the metamorphosis of Keynes from clever young man to authoritative adult, moreover, the author doesn't scant the public man's private life. Among other insights, he provides a moving account of how Keynes, long a homosexual, astounded Bloomsbury friends by falling in love with and marrying Lydia Lopokova, a Russian ballerina. Covered as well are the ways in which Keynes (who moved easily among venues as varied as academe, the arts, finance, government, and high society) used his market savvy to make himself a wealthy man. (One cavil: Skidelsky devotes too much attention to trivial details--e.g., furniture purchases for the Keynes country home and the given names of a servant's children.) A comprehensive and commanding profile that's bidding fair to become the standard reference. (Sixteen pages of b&w illustrations) Review: John Maynard Keynes: Hopes betrayed, 1883-1920Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsFinal volume in the definitive biography (following The Economist as Savior, 1920–1937, 1994, etc.) of the brilliant British economist. Keynes (1883–1946) may or may not have been the greatest economist of the last century, but he was certainly the most influential. Moving easily in academic, literary, business, and political circles, he was merely an unpaid advisor to the Treasury (albeit with his own office) during the 1930s and '40s, yet no British politician could ignore him. Rejecting Marxism and socialism, he also dismissed much of classical economics. Many of his ideas outraged traditional economists. He taught that efforts at a balanced budget made no sense. He advocated generous government spending during slumps but frugality in boom times. Skidelsky (Political Economy/Warwick Univ.) begins the present volume with Keynes at the peak of his influence in 1937. This was partly due to the power of his ideas but also because he advocated programs politicians were eager to follow for other reasons (it was, after all, the Depression). Almost immediately he was caught up in the preparations and financing of WWII. Keynes's advice ensured that Britain's enormous war budget did not produce the damaging inflation that occurred during WWI. In addition, he advocated a postwar monetary system that avoided the chaotic currency swings that stifled trade and aggravated economic cycles between the wars. Negotiating with the US, he was forced to compromise, but the successful Bretton Woods agreement contained many of his ideas. His greatest failure was America's 1945 refusal of a massive grant to revive England's crippled economy. Readers accustomed to the History Channel view of the two allies as blood brothers will be surprised to learn how aggressively US leaders strove to eliminate Britain's empire and economic influence. It's no easy task to write a readable history of the WWII years leaving out all battles and concentrating on how the bill was paid, but Skidelsky succeeds superbly. Review: John Maynard KeynesEditorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsPublished to deserved acclaim in England three years ago, this is the first installment of a projected two-volume biography of Keynes, arguably the 20th-century's most influential economist. Until the appearance of Skidelsky's probing but humane entry, the standard reference was Roy F. Harrod's The Life of John Maynard Keynes (1951); among other deficits, Harrod's excessively discreet work completely ignored the implications of its subject's lifelong homosexuality. In the event, Skidelsky (a professor of international relations at Great Britain's Warwick University) offers a perceptive stage-setting account of Keynes' formative years and early career in government. He documents, for instance, how Keynes came of intellectual age (at Eton and Cambridge) with a generation that renounced the paternalistic ethos of Victorian religion in favor of the analytic philosophy of George E. Moore. With access to previously unavailable source material, the author takes the measure of the complex nature of Keynes' relationships not only with university and Bloomsbury friends but also with writers and artists of the day; the ranks of the latter group included Lytton Strachey and Duncan Grant (with whom Keynes had an intense affair). Skidelsky also records how firsthand experience at the India Office and Treasury led Keynes to respond to economic problems in innovative ways. WW I, however, caused him great personal anguish. Though ""his attitude to the war was very ambiguous,"" Keynes (an undeclared conscientious objector) soldiered on at the Treasury from 1915 through mid-1919. By the time he left, Keynes had attended the Paris Peace Conference and gathered the material that went into The Economic Consequences of The Peace. Committing him as it did to quitting the ivory tower for the real world's problems, this masterly critique signaled a turning point for Keynes. Where it led, of course, is a story for Volume II, which will do well to match the telling details and insights of the text at hand. User reviewsReview: John Maynard Keynes: Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920 (John Maynard Keynes #1)User Review - David Singerman - GoodreadsThis is simply the best biography I've ever read. Keynes was a fascinating person, immensely gifted and energetic, but what makes his life worth reading about is the conflict—-which he never resolved ... Read full review Review: John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3: Fighting for Freedom, 1937-1946 (John Maynard Keynes #3)User Review - Ed - GoodreadsWell I finally finished the third volume of Skidelsky's great biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes. I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I did the other two volumes; though it is now available as one ... Read full review Review: John Maynard Keynes: Volume 1: Hopes Betrayed 1883-1920 (John Maynard Keynes #1)User Review - Steve Sewall - GoodreadsFascinating, authoritative study of the leading thinker of his age and perhaps our own as well by an irresistibly able and entertaining writer. Read full review Review: John Maynard Keynes: Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920 (John Maynard Keynes #1)User Review - Vbm95u - GoodreadsClearly the most comprehensive biography of the most important economist of the 20th century, in volume 1 Skidelsky explores Keynes's early childhood and family life. Read full review Review: John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3: Fighting for Freedom, 1937-1946 (John Maynard Keynes #3)User Review - Tom - GoodreadsHave owned this for a long time, but only read a few pages so far. Time to finish. I know Volumes 1 and 2 are supposed to be better, but this one was available from a remainder outlet... Read full review Review: John Maynard Keynes: Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920 (John Maynard Keynes #1)User Review - John - GoodreadsThis book and it's companions are a grand and well written biography of a man who was at the center of Britain's political, artistic and academic life for half a century. He predicted the second world ... Read full review Review: John Maynard Keynes: Volume 3: Fighting for Freedom, 1937-1946 (John Maynard Keynes #3)User Review - GoodreadsFinal volume in Skidelsky's three-part biography of Keynes. I am listed in the acknowledgments, so it must be good right? | User ratings| 5 stars | | | 4 stars | | | 3 stars | | | 2 stars | | | 1 star | |
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