Picture of author.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006)

Author of The Great Crash 1929

73+ Works 10,399 Members 107 Reviews 18 Favorited

About the Author

John Kenneth Galbraith is a Canadian-born American economist who is perhaps the most widely read economist in the world. He taught at Harvard from 1934-1939 and then again from 1949-1975. An adviser to President John F. Kennedy, he served from 1961 to 1963 as U.S. ambassador to India. His style and show more wit in writing and his frequent media appearances have contributed greatly to his fame as an economist. Galbraith believes that it is not sufficient for government to manage the level of effective demand; government must manage the market itself. Galbraith stated in American Capitalism (1952) that the market is far from competitive, and governments and labor unions must serve as "countervailing power." He believes that ultimately "producer sovereignty" takes the place of consumer sovereignty and the producer - not the consumer - becomes ruler of the marketplace. (Bowker Author Biography) John Kenneth Galbraith, born in 1908, is the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University and a past president of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Economic Association. He is the author of thirty-one books spanning five decades. He has received honorary degrees from, among others, Harvard University, Oxford University, the University of Paris, the University of Toronto, and Moscow State University. He is Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur in France, and in 1997 he was inducted into the Order of Canada. In 2000, at a White House ceremony, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Publisher Provided) show less

Series

Works by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Great Crash 1929 (1954) 1,817 copies, 28 reviews
The Affluent Society (1958) 1,775 copies, 13 reviews
The New Industrial State (1967) 794 copies, 7 reviews
Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975) 468 copies, 4 reviews
The Age of Uncertainty (1977) 440 copies, 1 review
A Short History of Financial Euphoria (1990) 340 copies, 8 reviews
A Life in Our Times (1981) 326 copies, 3 reviews
The Culture of Contentment (1992) 325 copies, 3 reviews
Economics and the Public Purpose (1973) 280 copies, 1 review
The Good Society: The Humane Agenda (1996) 264 copies, 4 reviews
A Tenured Professor (1990) 224 copies, 3 reviews
A History of Economics: The Past as the Present (Penguin Economics) (1991) — Author — 211 copies, 2 reviews
Ambassador’s Journal (1969) 205 copies, 2 reviews
The Anatomy of Power (1983) 203 copies
Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics (1978) 196 copies, 1 review
The Triumph (1968) 155 copies
Name-Dropping: From FDR On (1999) 142 copies, 3 reviews
The Liberal Hour (1960) 138 copies, 1 review
The Non-potable Scotch (1963) 104 copies, 2 reviews
The Essential Galbraith (2001) 90 copies, 1 review
The Nature of Mass Poverty (1979) 89 copies, 3 reviews
The Galbraith Reader (1977) 52 copies
A China Passage (1973) 51 copies, 1 review
Economic development (1964) 35 copies
How to Control the Military (1970) 35 copies, 1 review
Economics and the Art of Controversy (1980) 26 copies, 1 review
Letters to Kennedy (1998) 24 copies
The McLandress dimension (1968) 17 copies
A Theory of Price Control (1980) 11 copies
John Kenneth Galbraith introduces India (1974) — Introduction — 5 copies
Economia y subversion 4 copies, 1 review
Economie hétérodoxe (2007) 2 copies
Külluseühiskond (2024) 1 copy
Økonomiens profeter (1988) 1 copy
Oekonomi og samfunn (1972) 1 copy

Associated Works

A Sense of History: The Best Writing from the Pages of American Heritage (1985) — Contributor — 473 copies, 4 reviews
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 140 copies, 1 review
On the Firing Line: The Public Life of Our Public Figures (1989) — Contributor — 115 copies, 1 review
Great Stories of American Businessmen (1972) — Contributor — 15 copies
Money Should Be Fun (1980) — Introduction — 13 copies, 1 review
Theories of the Labor Movement (1987) — Contributor — 7 copies
Mrs. Kennedy Goes Abroad — Introduction, some editions — 1 copy

Tagged

1929 (28) 20th century (119) America (54) American (32) American history (200) anthology (42) autobiography (53) biography (92) business (119) capitalism (138) economic history (175) economic policy (40) economics (1,844) economy (141) essays (82) fiction (85) finance (131) Galbraith (52) Great Depression (82) hardcover (32) history (661) India (28) John Kenneth Galbraith (62) liberalism (34) memoir (98) money (38) NF (27) non-fiction (548) philosophy (61) political economy (84) political science (81) politics (296) read (36) social science (69) society (44) sociology (149) to-read (274) unread (46) US history (40) USA (147)

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

What's happening in 2017? in Progressive & Liberal! (January 2019)

Reviews

I read this book for a course that I am undertaking. I'm glad that I did.

It is hard to read this work without making comparisons to the present day: Galbraith lists five main causes for the crash and each has eerie echoes reverberating in the present day economic system. It seems that, as a species, we never learn, but are condemned to circle through our errors on a regular basis.
 
Flagged
the.ken.petersen | 27 other reviews | Mar 17, 2024 |
Excellent book - subject is what people are ready to do in order to gain wealth and what happens when everything goes down the drain. I simplify the matter, I agree, but it is strange that exactly the same thing happened not so long ago (just read the section describing the way speculations rise up and cause the entire structure to collapse) - what, nobody read the book? Or did they think it was obsolete?

Highly recommended.
 
Flagged
Zare | 27 other reviews | Jan 23, 2024 |
La truffe sono più d'una: quella del "mercato" quella della "grande impresa", quella del "management", quella del "pubblico/privato"...
 
Flagged
d.v. | 8 other reviews | May 16, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Statistics

Works
73
Also by
10
Members
10,399
Popularity
#2,287
Rating
3.8
Reviews
107
ISBNs
492
Languages
21
Favorited
18

Charts & Graphs