John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics
by By Parker, Richard
Category: Biography & Autobiography , Social Scientists & Psychologists

The life and times of America’s most celebrated economist, assessing his lessons—and warnings—for us todayJohn Kenneth Galbraith’s books—among them The Affluent Society and American Capitalism—are famous for good reason. Written by a scholar renowned for energetic political engagement and irrepressible wit, they are models of provocative good sense that warn prophetically of the dangers of deregulated markets, war in Asia, corporate greed, and stock-market bubbles. Galbraith’s work has also deeply—and controversially—influenced his own profession, and in Richard Parker’s hands his biography becomes a vital reinterpretation of American economics and public policy.Born and raised on a small Canadian farm, Galbraith began teaching at Harvard during the Depression. He was FDR’s “price czar” during the war and then a senior editor of Fortune before returning to Harvard and to fame as a bestselling writer. Parker shows how, from his early championing of Keynes to his acerbic analysis of America’s “private wealth and public squalor,” Galbraith regularly challenged prevailing theories and policies. And his account of Galbraith’s remarkable friendship with John F. Kennedy, whom he served as a close advisor while ambassador to India, is especially relevant for its analysis of the intense, dynamic debates that economists and politicians can have over how America should manage its wealth and power. This masterful chronicle gives color, depth, and meaning to the record of an extraordinary life.                                                                               Richard Parker is an Oxford-trained economist and senior fellow of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. A cofounder of the magazine Mother Jones, he writes extensively on economics and public policy. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife and children.                                                     A New York Times Notable Book John Kenneth Galbraith is America's most famous economist for good reason. A witty commentator on America's political follies and a versatile author of bestselling books that warn prophetically of the dangers of deregulated markets, corporate greed, and inattention to the costs of our military power (among them The Great Crash: 1929, The Affluent Society, and The New Industrial State), Galbraith always makes economics relevant to the crises of the day. This first authorized biography is, in Richard Parker's hands, an important reinterpretation both of public policy and of how economics is practiced. Born in 1908 and raised on a small Canadian farm, Galbraith began to teach at Harvard in his twenties. In 1938 he left to work in New Deal Washington, eventually rising to become FDR's "price czar" during the war. Following his years as a writer at Fortune, where he did much to introduce the work of John Maynard Keynes to a wide audience, he returned to Harvard in 1949 and began writing the books that would make him famous. Over the years, Galbraith developed a distinctive way of "doing economics," and it made him a critic both of conservatives and of many liberal economists. Parker's vibrant, nuanced portrait is enlightening on Galbraith's engagement with his fellow economists and the politics they influenced?from the "Neoclassical Synthesis" and the New Frontier to monetarism, supply-siders, and the conservative revolution of the 1980s and 1990s. It is also a dramatic narrative about public policies and the people who create them, for Galbraith was often at the very epicenter of politics in his time. From his acerbic analysis of the nation's "private wealth and public squalor" in the 1950s to his denunciations of the Vietnam War, Galbraith regularly challenged the "conventional wisdom" (a phrase he coined). Parker's account of Galbraith's friendship with John F. Kennedy, whom he served as ambassador to India, is filled with new insights and information about economic policy, about American policy in Asia, and about the heavy influence of the Pentagon's budget on every aspect of public affairs. Subsequent chapters, analyzing Galbraith's responses to the mistakes made by later administrations in managing America's wealth and power, offer a powerful critique of the Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton years. But Parker gives equal attention to the warm, lively, and nourishing friendships that shaped the private life of Kenneth and Kitty Galbraith and their high-spirited family. This masterful chronicle gives color, depth, and meaning to the record of an extraordinary life.                  "There was a time when John Kenneth Galbraith was the most famous economist in America, a man whose books regularly became best sellers. But today he is little honored in the economics profession, where, as Richard Parker remarks in his engaging and exhaustive biography, Mr. Galbraith is regarded as something of an outsider, a fine writer who never became comfortable with the detailed mathematical formulas that came to dominate economics."?Floyd Norris, The New York Times                               "There was a time when John Kenneth Galbraith was the most famous economist in America, a man whose books regularly became best sellers. But today he is little honored in the economics profession, where, as Richard Parker remarks in his engaging and exhaustive biography, Mr. Galbraith is regarded as something of an outsider, a fine writer who never became comfortable with the detailed mathematical formulas that came to dominate economics."?Floyd Norris, The New York Times "Parker's book is both a biography and a treatise on the misinterpretations and disastrous mistakes?the mystery of stagflation, the bubble of the 90's, Vietnam?that theoretical rigidity and deference to experts have brought over the last hundred years. It is also, thanks to Galbraith's longevity, his work in so many administrations, and his battles with so many other economic thinkers, a fine one-volume history of economic thought in the 20th century . . . I will confess that I was initially skeptical about the book's 820 pages of dense type, but every detail is justified and every digression fascinating . . . [A] comprehensive account of the 20th century's economic battles."?Thomas Frank, The New York Times Book Review "[Parker is] an engaging writer [who] does a good job covering all [the] episodes in [Galbraith's] busy life. At every point he is at pains to set the stage, making sure that the reader understands the characters and motives involved and the issues at stake."?Dan Seligman, The Wall Street Journal "With a strong grasp of complex economic issues that span some sixty years, Parker succeeds in placing Galbraith's economic contributions within the intellectual tradition?part Keynesian and part derived from the work of Thorstein Veblen?to which they belong . . . In tracing Galbraith's intellectual development, Parker has also written a much-needed history of American progressivism."?Jeffrey Madrick, The New York Review of Books "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 . . . He is a good writer, who is particularly deft at bringing to life and explaining economic ideas and policy debates."?The Economist "The story of this man's life and work, wonderfully rendered in this magnum opus, offers an antidote to the public ennui, economic cruelty, and government malfeasance that poison life in America today . . . Parker lifts up a single life as an image of how intelligence, compassion, and commitment remain the essence of social hope."?James Carroll, The Boston Globe "John Kenneth Galbraith towered?literally and figuratively?over twentieth-century America, afflicting the comfortable with searing wit and unassailable logic, and comforting the afflicted with compelling ideas for improving society to the benefit of all. To understand the ideals that propelled America from FDR's New Deal until Bush's Raw Deal, one must comprehend Galbraith's life, politics, and economics. Herewith, a stunningly lucid guide. Richard Parker gives to Galbraith the deep insight and sweeping perspective that Galbraith gives to America."?Robert B. Reich, Brandeis University "Parker's timely biography of Ken Galbraith and his brilliant career is an extraordinary gift to a nation grappling more than ever with the profound issues that Galbraith addressed so eloquently over so many years with his famed intellect and wit. Galbraith's passion for social justice, his skepticism about excessive power in the hands of either government or the private sector, and his indispensable contributions to progressive politics and economic thought shine through every page of this book, and they are still highly relevant to our twenty-first-century national debate on the great domestic and global challenges of our time. For all who care about a better world and a fairer reconciliation at home and abroad between what Galbraith called 'private affluence and public squalor,' this remarkable volume should be required reading. It is both an education and an inspiration."?Senator Edward M. Kennedy "This is a superb book, literate and fascinating, about one of the truly original minds of the century. No one can write about contemporary economics, politics, diplomacy, wit, satire and phrase-making without taking John Kenneth Galbraith into just account, and Richard Parker is the ideal biographer."?Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "In its breadth of interest, its erudition, its ease in explaining economics in everyday language, and, above all, in its skillful, first-rate story-telling, Richard Parker's splendid, immensely readable biography is in every way a match for the towering and fascinating figure who strides through its pages."?Adam Hochschild "John Kenneth Galbraith has been, against the tide, a shameless advocate for a government that would guarantee all of us a decent existence. This saga of his life and thought presents a lively review of what has happened to our economy and to the profession of economics in the last seventy years."?Barbara Bergmann, author of The Economic Emergence of Women "John Kenneth Galbraith is the Harvard economist who became one of the most influential oracles of the contemporary world. An often searing critic of big business, he has been responsible for reshaping the anatomy of modern thought, extending his lively sanctions into the many branches of his eclectic intellect. In this thoughtful and highly readable volume, the Oxford-trained economist Richard Parker provides an essential guide to the man and his ideas. It captures an extraordinary life, extraordinarily well."?Peter C. Newman "Parker has written an engrossing, thoroughly researched, and authoritative account of the life of John Kenneth Galbraith. The book not only details the richly varied experiences of one of the great public intellectuals and social commentators of our time; it also offers a most interesting account of the evolution of economic thought from the era of John Maynard Keynes to the present day."?Derek Bok "An engaging and comprehensive review of the life and times of a brilliant, prolific twentieth-century thinker. Galbraith understands that the structural determinants, limitations, and consequences of markets have been largely ignored by economists?to the detriment of the discipline and of society. This is a poignant book with important messages for the twenty-first century."?David K. Foot, University of Toronto and co-author of Boom, Bust & Echo "[An] accessible, well-written approach to both Galbraith's life and the larger issues to which he has so effectively devoted his thought: an exemplary intellectual biography."?Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "[Galbraith] took on academic and political orthodoxies to transform the way informed people think about the economy, institutions, and social justice . . . Parker's biography is a model of clarity on these matters."?Publishers Weekly