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John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics

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Richard Parker's John Kenneth Galbraith is an exceedingly well written and assiduously researched biography. Perhaps most impressive it the ease with which Parker weaves JKB's life, economic theories and beliefs, the development of Keynesian economics and virtually all post-WWI US history. While there is little doubt this work is about JKB and his influence on economic theory and policy, his extraordinary busy life, and political connections made initially at Harvard as an instuctor (and, later, as a tenured professor) Parker does a superb job integrating a prodigous amount of US history and policy in a very well annoted fashion and with a marvelous economy of prose.

Galbraith, always a controversial scholar, never could be accused of hiding any political agenda. A true believer in the New Deal and a Great Society, he obviously believed in a coordinated, but not limitless, goverenment role in a capitalistic society. Those who have studied economics to any degree have the Latin phase drilled in their heads, ceterus paribus - other things equal. Galbraith thought this analysis and seemingly erudite and complex other mathematical formulas pure rubbish. As an undergrad in the late 70's I distinctly remember a terrific professor of mine "catching" me reading An Affluent Society. He teased me about my "leftist leanings". But Galbraith always challenged my assumptions, and, obviously millions of others. Parker perhaps should be accused of a positive bias toward his subject. That said, he makes his arguments quite cogent and exceeding well annoted.

While I think this book is a must read for those interested in 20th century economic thought, policy or history I would certainly encourage ALL to read the antepenultimate chapter, Joy Fades. It is the finest 24 pages I have ever read on "conservative" vs. "liberal" economic beliefs and policy.

Richard Parker's John Kenneth Galbraith is a real winner. It should be read and on the book shelves of all US historians and economists. It is one terrific read on a truly remarkable intellectual.

John Kenneth Galbraith has been the most famous and widely read economist in the world. An engaging writer and drily quotable, he published four dozen books and countless articles, served as adviser to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and regularly blasted subsequent Republican administrations. Galbraith served on a post-war commission that studied strategic bombing of Germany (and concluded that despite its tremendous moral cost, it had had little or no effect on the Nazi war machine-much to our military's embarrassment), had a successful two-year stint as ambassador to India, was an early and vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, and even published three novels.

Richard Parker presents the first substantial biography of this six-foot-eight-inch, Canadian-born Harvard professor who refused to hide in academia. As co-founding editor and publisher of "Mother Jones" magazine, consultant and fundraiser for Democratic candidates and Greenpeace, and finally Harvard professor of economics and public policy himself, Parker was almost uniquely situated to draw a richly sympathetic portrait. Galbraith is not an inherently interesting man, nor do his life and theories present an especially compelling read. What makes the book worthwhile is its mosaic of the many worlds through which Galbraith moved: It offers an excellent review of recent political and economic history, though the slant is decidedly liberal.

It's good to be reminded that different political parties have repeatedly been thought dead (the Democrats in 1955 and 1985, Republicans in 1941 and 1965), only to rise again, and that the nation handled dire economic crises (inflation in 1971, the first oil crisis in 1973, the Depression itself), if uneasily and temporarily. Galbraith forecast the failure of Republican economic policies, the growth of corporate management that is unresponsive to shareholders and manipulates demand, and repeatedly scolded his profession for its increasing worship of complex mathematical modeling that ignores huge chunks of political and economic reality-such as burgeoning military budgets or the public good-to make the numbers work.

He saw the details as well as the big picture, and practiced what he preached. Galbraith froze his own Harvard salary after his books began to sell, and turned back the surplus to his department. He gave his longtime housekeeper a condo upon her retirement, directed a percentage of his books' royalties to his assistant and editor, and set up an anonymous fund to assist students who found themselves unexpectedly pregnant.

Parker seems to want to reach a broader, general audience, but his explanations of economic theory will leave lay readers lost. One would do well to keep a dummy's or complete idiot's guide to economics by one's elbow while reading this book.

Not terribly lively but solid, this book offers plenty of consolation for the mournful blue stater who chooses to scale it, and food for thought about where we might (and maybe should) be headed.

Paul Samuelson was one third correct about JKG. As Samuelson notes, Galbraith was an "economist for non-economists". But as an economist myself, JKG was also an economist for economists and for thinking people everywhere. He revolutionised and demystified economics within its political and social contexts for millions. Parker does an excellent job in capturing the genius of his thought and impact. Teaching economics, as I do, is so much more a pleasure now that Galbraith's perspectives can be added to the conventional wisdom. I'm afraid most of his critics have lacked the ability to generate an original thought, so Galbraith provides an easy target since he has produced so many of them.

I have long been an admirer of Ken Galbraith, and on occasion, have labored in the same vineyard. We are indeed fortunate to have the talented Mr. Parker present us with this well documented, well scripted review of Ken Galbraith's life. The fact that Parker is himself well steeped in economics and shares with Galbraith the capacity to translate what can be viewed as arcane aspects of that science in language that lay persons can cope with makes this book even better than a simple retelling of aspects of a fascinating life, Galbraiths's intellectual growth and his towering role in public events make for an exciting story, and Parker tells it very well. Every "liberal" should love it; every conservative could benefit from it.

John Kenneth Galbraith is the personification of Liberalism. And if you want a detailed insight into what the enduring essence of Liberalism is, not as it is defined by its political enemies, but by its greatest exponent in America, this lengthy, detailed, and highly readable biography of Galbraith is for you. Ambitious in its scope and breadth, this book is far more than a "life" of Galbraith. You get three books for the price of one here. You get, of course, a biography of Galbraith, a man of considerable brilliance who led a fascinating life. You get a history of American polity, particularly in economics, from the Depression to the close of the Twentieth Century. And perhaps most important, you get the story of how Galbraith's central ideal, the ideal of an intelligent public policy exercised by democratically elected government has fared in America during this period.

Central to Galbraith's economics is the belief that representative government can be a powerful force for good, and (to use Galbraith's term) an essential "countervailing power" to private interest. Starting with Galbraith's career as an agricultural economist in the New Deal, and going to the end of the Clinton administration, Parker's book follows Galbraith's responses to, and in some cases impact upon, the key events and political and economic controversies of the times. Along the way the reader gains a detailed insight into how the post-WWII American consensus of a partnership between government, business, and labor, committed to the common good, began to break down in the 1970s and 1980s, and how we arrived at today's "conventional wisdom" (another term that Galbraith coined) that cynically practices the self-fulfilling prophecy that nothing beneficial can emanate from the public sector.

For those who are particularly interested in academic economics, this biography gives a fascinating account of Galbraith's long battle against the rise of a brand of mathematical microeconomics uninterested in any so-called "exogenous" factors such as observable facts and real-world issues, and which had nothing to offer in social policy beyond, as Parker writes, "a future of endless consumption of endlessly more goods." As an alternative to the metric of "allocational efficiency" (for example, "just in time" practices, outsourcing jobs to cut costs) Galbraith proposed an alternative metric he called "the minimization of social tension." Although Galbraith is often now considered marginalized by his political and intellectual opponents, this book makes a powerful case for revisiting his approach to economics as being inseparably linked to institutional, political, and even psychological issues. As Parker writes, Galbraith's approach to economics is concerned above all with "the fundamental issue of how societies and civilizations work".

Now more than ever this book is a necessary reminder of why Galbraith's voice is of continuing relevance. Parker, himself an eminent economist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, has succeeded with a light touch in highlighting the resonance today of Galbraith's approach to basic questions of public policy. Often his narrative of Galbraith's thinking on an issue he faced at a particular point in his career suggests a critique of the economic policies being pursued today. Galbraith the economist, the writer, and the public figure was all too often right when the "conventional wisdom" was wrong. His highly literate and often ironic expression of unpopular views are well worth listening to, from the ineffectiveness of strategic bombing in World War II, to the disastrous American involvement in Vietnam, to the true economic, moral, political, and opportunity costs of the militarization of America in the Cold War, to the Social Darwinism which is the all-too-inevitable consequence of untrammeled worship of "the market" as "the omniscient, the omnipotent, the omnipresent metric by which all was to be measured", and which replaced the old partnership consensus starting in the 1980's.

This colorful and anecdotal biography of Galbraith stretches across almost the whole of the twentieth century and in the telling leaves behind a cogent history of economics and American government, stretching from the Keynsian revolution to the breaking up of the classic liberalism of the Roosevelt era beginning with Nixon. Galbraith's life puts a lens to the fine grain of virtually all the significant developments since the decade of the thirties and the Depression and leaves behind a lot of insightful asides about the interaction of economists with politicians. The record of clear-headed advice given, but not always taken, has some grimmer moments, such as the repeated cautions and warnings from Galbraith about Vietnam, even as Kennedy was overtaken by events. The picture of the high-tide of Keynesianism is refreshing after two decades of economic sophistry from the post-Reagan generation. You would think that Republicans could manage economies, but the record shows a great fall, as the crackpots with their fancy models and the rest of the looters took over. We could use some the common sense and economic basics that Galbraith once provided (and he wasn't a kneejerk Keynsian). Instead we may be undone by the voodoo artists and their laffer curves, nothing to laugh at anymore as the American public gets swindled one more time. Superb double history, the man, and the American scene.

I am a general reader with little familarity with economics, but I found this biography of Galbraith interesting right up to the end. It is a long book--669 pages of text. Richard Parker's writing is up to Galbraith's own, and is worthy of the task of writing Galbraith's professional biography--there is little of his personal life, which I didn't miss at all. For the layman, a little more explanation of economics terms might have been helpful, but reading further usually clears up the confusion, which I probably wouldn't have needed if I had taken Economics 101. Read it, especially if you are an old-time liberal and Keynesian!

The author covers an enourmous amount of economic, social and political ground in a way that is informative and entertaining.
Richard Parker does not come off as overly biased toward Galbraith and the ideas he stands for. Parker is able to pull-off an objective interpretation to not only the life and contributions of Galbraith himself, but also his masters.

While economist Parker's writing style is not as wryly entertaining as Galbraith's, he presents a lucid and engrossing overview of Galbraith's life experiences as they influenced the evolution of his economic philosophy, as well as his political and social philosophies. Galbraith's biography is skillfully presented against the background of more traditional economic thought with which he was regularly in contention. I judge it every bit as readable and understandable for a noneconomist like myself as for someone in the field. For anyone interested in Galbraith, in Keynesianism, or the history of progressive politics and economics, this work is an absolute must. I refer to mine regularly. This, in fact, is my second copy, having worn out the first.

This is really an excellent biography of a fine man and economist. His friend, the noted patrician conservative, Bill Buckley, gives it high praise on his front cover blurb for the book. Hopefully, Gailbraith got Buckley's praise before he died. If he did, I hope he withdrew his earlier comment quoted in the book that, "...Buckley...was invariably wrong." Plus, if he were still alive, I'm sure he would be most pleased with Bill Buckley's criticism of Bush and the Iraq war.

Richard Parker has written an excellent book documenting John Kenneth Gailbraith's very long (98 years) and productive life. I happen to agree with Paul Samuelson that Gailbraith will be remembered long after the neo-classical mathematizers have passed away. Economics is a Social Science that belongs in the Liberal Arts tradition. It should not be treated as a cultish pseudo-science with the "high priests" continuously muttering incantations of statistical and mathematical hocus-pocus. All the time, enjoying well financed academic chairs funded by conservative business interests or working for conservative foundations. Writing apologetics for the corporate business community is certainly going to be far more finanically rewarding than speaking truth to power.

When I hear many of today's conservative economists speak on conservative foundation panels on C-SPAN, I am sometimes reminded of the old radical American economist of Norwegian-American descent, Thorstein Veblen. One of his more direct comments about the education of business oriented neo-classical economists was that they possessed "trained incapacity" by the end of their extensive schooling. Some things haven't changed too much since the early 20th century when he coined the phrase.

Gailbraith's adherence to the less popular and older view of economics as "political economy" will, I believe, win out in the end. Economic behavior is social behavior and cannot be fully extracted from psychological, sociological, anthropological, and most of all, political, concerns. To deny this very basic fact is to live in a fantasy world. Political decisions are enormously important in the workings of national and international economies. Market forces are also of great importance, but there are no "free market" forces that act in isolated purity. Market forces are always contextual--influenced by family, community, custom, mass psychology, politics especially, etc., etc.

Parker convinced me that the U.S. would be a much better place if presidents after FDR had followed Gailbraith's advice. The world would also be a much safer place without the extraordinary levels of US militarism after WWII--with accompanying conservative belligerance. Military spending is necessary up to a responsible, defensive level. After that level is achieved, however, it is incredibly wasteful and injurious to world peace. We would be far better served to invest in our people, their health, environment, and infrastructure than to keep flushing the money down the toilet for more "killer" weapons systems.

John Kenneth Gailbraith was a voice of sanity in an increasingly insane world. He will be greatly missed by those of us outside of the neo-conservative asylum.