The Essential Galbraith [Paperback]

John Kenneth Galbraith (Author), John Kenneth Galbraith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2001

THE ESSENTIAL GALBRAITH includes key selections from the most important works of John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the most distinguished writers of our time - from THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY, the groundbreaking book in which he conined the tern "conventional wisdom," to THE GREAT CRASH, an unsurpassed account of the events that triggered America's worst economic crisis. Galbraith’s new introductions place the works in their historical moment and make clear their enduring relevance for the new century. THE ESSENTIAL GALBRAITH will delight old admirers and introduce one of our most beloved writers to a new generation of readers. It is also an indispensable resource for scholars and students of economics, history, and politics, offering unparalleled access to the seminal writings of an extraordinary thinker.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Galbraith (economics, emeritus, Harvard) has for more than 50 years stood high at the intersection of academic life and public affairs and made significant contributions to both. This gathering of key selections from many of his writings has new introductions by Galbraith that make clear their relevance for the new century. The hallmark of Galbraith's thought is his insistence that an economy must be judged by the effect it has on the quality of life for current and future generations. His writings show a willingness to re-examine the strongly held beliefs of earlier generations, as when he stresses the need to reevaluate the supply-and-demand nexus by applying the countervailing power of labor unions and consumer coalitions against the great corporations. Another recurring theme is the need for a better balance between public and private outlays. The writing is graceful and often witty. Recommended for academic libraries. Harry Frumerman, formerly with Hunter Coll., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) was a critically acclaimed author and one of America's foremost economists. His most famous works include The Affluent Society, The Good Society, and The Great Crash. Galbraith was the receipient of the Order of Canada and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Lifetime Achievement, and he was twice awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; None edition (October 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618119639
• ISBN-13: 978-0618119639
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #335,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Kenneth Galbraith who was born in 1908, is the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University and a past president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the distinguished author of thirty-one books spanning three decades, including The Affluent Society, The Good Society, and The Great Crash. He has been awarded honorary degrees from Harvard, Oxford, the University of Paris, and Moscow University, and in 1997 he was inducted into the Order of Canada and received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. In 2000, at a White House ceremony, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 1 a.m. and I'm still reading an economics book, December 6, 2001

By 

Adam R. Norman "adamnorman" (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Galbraith (Paperback)

Perhaps Galraith's greatest appeal as an economist is the disdain he holds his own profession in. He is a merciless critic of thoughtlessness, ignorance, and the status-quo--and he's quite fun to read.

Because this is an anthology of his life's work, themes are occassionally repeated. But you don't need to know much economics, and the writings are current.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic on Economics, January 9, 2009

By 

J.L. Populist (WI,USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Galbraith (Paperback)

The chapters in "The Essential Galbraith" are material from various books authored by John Kenneth Galbraith. Some of these book titles are; THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY; THE GREAT CRASH,1929; THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE; and AMERICAN CAPITALISM.

This book also addressed a variety of economic and societal issues in Galbraith's typical style; easily understood and witty.

His writing about the crash of 1929 was some of the best in the book.

He addressed the failures of neoclassical economics.

Another topic that I liked was his analysis of the great economists and sociologists. Some of these prominent figures that I appreciated the most were Adam Smith, Thorstein Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes.

Mr. Galbraith gave an insightful definition of the term "the establishment". They are those who guide or control the modern corporation and the financial, legislative, legal, technical, advertising, and other "sacerdotal services."

Two Galbraith quotes that struck me as timeless are this quote from page 41- "It requires an organization to deal with an organization, and between public and private bureaucracies- between General Dynamics and the Pentagon, General Motors and the Department of Transportation- there is a deeply symbiotic relationship. Each of these organizations can do much for the other. There has been, between them, a large and continuous exchange of executive personnel."
This reminds me of that very same relationship between current Bush cabinet members and Wall Street. The benefits are obvious when considering the bailout of last year.

This last quote is in context to Keynes and his tarnished reputation after he criticized Winston Churchill's economic policy before Churchill became Prime Minister.
"When the men of great reputation are wrong, it is the worst of personal tactics to be right.-page 230.

I rated "The Culture of Contentment" slightly higher, but this book covers a lot more of Mr. Galbraith's writing and it is educational and entertaining.

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More people need to know this stuff, August 5, 2003

By 

Bruce P. Barten (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Galbraith (Paperback)

It does not take this book very long to get to how organizations need a system of motivation which appeals to the individuals who will take part in the organization's activities. Economists primarily serve planners, with whatever can promote the organizers of the technostructure who are looking for ways to expand their activity, usually in ways that produce private profit. To produce examples of individual motivations, Galbraith mentions "Ditch-digging" (p. 81) and soon moves up, or down, depending on your point of view. "But once again the ditch-digger is not the most powerful example. The cabinet officer or high official who serves and on occasion concurs in action that he finds repugnant in order to advance measures of which he approves is a better case. He came to be part of something approaching a majority of American officialdom as those involved in the Vietnam war came to explain why they went along." (p. 82). A common form of ditch in Vietnam was a latrine, dug by soldiers because each of them was likely to need to use the latrine as much as the next G.I., and a place that had already been prepared next to a big pile of loose dirt, or a can under a simple crate with a large hole on top, was as luxurious an accommodation as any soldier could expect prior to being evacuated from Nam himself. Digging the ditch was a pleasure, compared to the chore of burning what was in the can, but Nam was a situation that lasted so long, the Army needed to provide for human waste in a way that avoided unsanitary results from new troops coming in and digging up an area that had been the previous unit's latrine.

After a century of fantastic organizational growth, and fifty years of economics from Galbraith, it takes a tremendous amount of balancing contrary ideas to avoid the worst of what has gone before, in particular, the "cabinet officer or high official who serves and on occasion concurs in action that he finds repugnant." (p. 82). "The Case for Social Balance" on pages 40-54 noted how, in times of economic growth that was highly profitable, industry salaries could rise faster than governments could keep up, and with high inflation, the revenues of cities "lag behind when prices rise. The problem of financing services thus becomes increasingly acute as and when inflation continues." (p. 52). Trying to balance public needs with the views of typical investors, "Urgent warnings were issued of the unfavorable effects of taxation on investment" (p, 53), Galbraith ends his balancing by trying to foist the higher sense of disorder on F. A. von Hayek, who wrote "Where distinction and rank is achieved almost exclusively by becoming a civil servant of the state . . . it is too much to expect that many will long prefer freedom to security." [THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, p. 98] (THE ESSENTIAL GALBRAITH, pp. 53-54).

Arguments tend to illustrate how primitive political positions are, and sending millions of individuals from America to Vietnam as members of the armed forces, supposedly to protect American interests in drilling for oil in the South China Sea, where oil reserves had not even been identified at the time, helped some of them to learn, "Compulsion is inconsistent with either identification or adaptation. If a person is compelled to accept the goals of an organization, he is unlikely, at least as long as he is under the sense of compulsion, to find them superior to his own." (p. 83). This does not resolve the situation in 2003, except for those lucky investors who check the news every day to see if the oil wells are still safe.

After everyone has absorbed "The Concept of the Conventional Wisdom," (pp. 18-30) in a way that assumes a higher standard of living will be most highly regarded in our society, pursuant to "The Myth of Consumer Sovereignty," the position of Galbraith as a thinker might be considered self-effacing in the extreme. Once you see what he is saying about American society, the truer it is, the less likely a political movement which must appeal to voters with such values is to succeed in putting his point across. Anyone who claims to represent the interests of the people, whether they are people of America, or peasants in Nam, or the people of Iraq, is quickly accused of being a fake with views that do not conform to reality in any corner of the globe.

If readers are looking for irony, allow me to point out the observation, common in 1987 prior to the crash of October 19, "Galbraith doesn't like to see people making money." in "The Speculative Episode." (p. 254). Themes in THE ESSENTIAL GALBRAITH might be considered to be in the order followed by the economic cycle. Near the end, "In Goldman, Sachs We Trust" is a selection from THE GREAT CRASH, 1929, which was published in 1955 "and is still in print today; on occasion it sells more than all my other books combined. The reason for its durability is simple: a citizen of sense, encountering someone deeply involved with the imaginative technology of recent times and the speculative enthusiasm surrounding it, advises, `You should read Galbraith on 1929.' " (p. 255)

I like history. The history of economics is represented by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Thorstein Veblen in pages 153-223. Keynes is a key topic of "The Mandarin Revolution" (pp. 224-235) and "How Keynes Came to America" (pp. 236-248). The great political triumph achieved by Walter Heller for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson is described as, "they added the new device of the deliberate tax reduction to sustain aggregate demand." (p. 248). This book ends with a lecture in June 1999, which began with the idea, "Over the years I've often presented myself to ardent conservatives as a student of von Hayek; it has added in an agreeable way to their normal confusion." (p. 307).