Name-Dropping: From FDR On [Hardcover]

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

Book Description

Series: . | Publication Date: May 1, 1999

John Kenneth Galbraith, the noted economist, joined Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal in 1934 and served that administration during World War II in the crucial role of deputy head of the Office of Price Administration in charge of price control. His service to FDR and his relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt began a long involvement with the leaders who would define much of the course of the twentieth century: Truman, Stevenson, John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy, Nehru, Lyndon Johnson, and others at home and abroad. Drawing on a lifetime of access to many of the greatest public figures, Galbraith creates a rich and uniquely personal history of the century -- a history he helped to shape. We are invited to hear FDR on the Great Depression and World War II; Albert Speer, the Third Reich's architect and armaments minister, on the boorishness and incompetence of the Nazi leadership; John F. Kennedy, from youth to the presidency; Jacqueline Kennedy's shrewd judgments of the White House inner circle. In this clear-eyed, unsparing, and amusing look back at the world and the people he has known, Galbraith tells what these leaders did -- how they looked to him then and how they look to him now -- with unforgettable reminiscences and a rich infusion of engaging anecdotes. Name-Dropping charts the political landscape of the past sixty-five years with the dazzling insight, humor, and literary skill that mark Galbraith as one of the most distinguished writers of our time. Just some of the portraits . . . Eisenhower's brother remembered a meeting in the Oval Office at which some difficult and potentially very unpopular decision was reached. Reflecting on the expected adverse reaction, Ike had said, "It's all right. When I've explained it to the press, no one will have any clear idea what we intend to do." Kennedy's preference for plain talk did not spare his friends. Before I left for New Delhi in April 1961, we had a farewell breakfast at the White House. That morning the New York Times had a piece on the new ambassador to India; Kennedy asked how I liked it. It had been generally favorable, and I said it was all right, but I didn't see why they had to call me arrogant. "I don't know why not," said Kennedy. "Everybody else does." Nehru said that one day at Gandhi's ashram in Ahmedabad a friend and supporter sought to ease a conflict with the British Viceroy by saying, "Mahatma, you must know that Lord Irwin never makes a decision without praying over it first." Gandhi reflected on this for some minutes. Then he said, "And why do you suppose God so consistently gives him the wrong advice?" Johnson once said to me, "Did it ever occur to you, Ken, that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissin' down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else." Not since have I given a speech on economics without having that metaphor in mind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this collection of anecdotes of the "famous people I have known" variety, John Kenneth Galbraith lets his hair down--well, as much as a Harvard economist in his 90s might be expected to, anyway. Despite the informality, Galbraith's prose is suffused throughout with dignified precision, even at its most profane (as in his recollection of his extemporaneous evaluation of incomplete returns from the 1948 presidential election: "I think Thomas E. Dewey may well be shitting in his blue serge pants"). For the most part, Name-Dropping concerns itself with the major American statesmen from the Democratic party of the mid-20th century--Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson--but Galbraith also shares his reminiscences of working on Adlai Stevenson's two failed campaigns against Eisenhower ("no modern politician," he writes of the experience, "had a more faithful coterie of supporters") and of Eleanor Roosevelt, "who, but for the accident of history and the prevailing constraints of gender, could have been President in her own right." On the international front, there's a brief encounter with Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and economic director, and more extended contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister (Galbraith served as ambassador to India in the Kennedy administration). Name-Dropping is a slim connection of anecdotes, held together by little more than Galbraith's presence, but that is more than enough to make its behind-the-scenes history cohesive and, in its way, quietly entertaining. --Ron Hogan

From Publishers Weekly

Galbraiths thin, impressionistic sojourn through his astounding career provides glimpses of some of the centurys most remarkable personalitiesincluding his own. In a series of chapters devoted to powerful, compelling individuals (FDR, JFK, LBJ, Nehru, to name a few), Galbraith rehashes much that is already known about these figures while offering his own perspective on their personalities and motivations. An astute observer of personalities, Galbraith, professor emeritus of economics at Harvard, expresses admiration for Nehru, Adlai Stevenson, Eleanor Roosevelt and John and Jackie Kennedy, scorn for Albert Speer and aversion to LBJ for his Vietnam entanglements. Galbraith claims he was ignorant of JFKs philandering, expresses his belief that Nazi leaders he interrogated after WWII were an incredible collection of often deranged incompetents and relates the rebukes he received from FDR concerning price control and rationing decisions. Though Galbraith treads on familiar ground with his defenses of Keynesian economics and occasional forays into liberal, Affluent Society territory, the book never congeals into a coherent whole. It is, instead an anecdotal mlange of first-hand impressions, autobiography and history.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395822882
• ISBN-13: 978-0395822883
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,753 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Dose of Intellectual Humor, October 26, 2000

By 

Junaid Mohiuddin (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Name-Dropping: From FDR On (Hardcover)

Name Dropping is a great high-level recap of Galbreath's insider experience as an influential 20th century statesmen. Like a grandfather recounting the salient parts of our recent American history and his career, its everything that you would not expect from an agricultural economist -- entertaining, witty, and easy to read. Highly recommended for train rides, short flights, or rainy days.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bending Down Upon the Great Leaders of the Twentieth Century, August 9, 2010

By 

Etienne ROLLAND-PIEGUE (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Name-Dropping: From FDR On (Paperback)

Blessed with a very long life, and having risen to prominence at an early age, John Kenneth Galbraith had ample time to write and publish his memoirs. This he did in 1981, without the provision for a further installment. Then came a dilemma: what was he to do with the rest of his life, and how could he direct his drive for authorship? Putting his pen to rest was not an option, and he was sufficiently clever to avoid repeating himself (or at least lucid enough to alert the reader when he was doing so). For a time, he found solace in fiction, and published a few novels that were, to his own admission, well received by the public. But the lure of autobiography was still there.

So he put his work back on the loom, and attempted to weave a new narrative out of the rich material he had accumulated over the years. Like the perfume maker who extracts a rich fragrance out of aromatic essences, or the liquor distiller who puts his spirit in the copper still for a last round of distillation, he gathered his pool of souvenirs for a last cuvée spéciale, and out of the condenser came a few drops of concentrated memories. These are the name drops, the unforgettable reminiscences distilled through time and experience, that are gathered in Name-Dropping.

Not lacking personal courage and aspiration to greatness, John Kenneth Galbraith could have become a war hero; but his height--six feet eight-and-a-half inches--disqualified him for active service in World War II. He was so tall he had to bend down to bring himself to other people's level. Hence his reputation for arrogance and haughtiness, a reputation that John F. Kennedy acknowledged as very well deserved. As the photo portfolio shows, the persons Galbraith bent down upon were the greatest leaders of the American Century. He was fortunate enough to work for Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. With his political bosses he was always faithful and trustworthy. In his memoirs, he emphasizes their political deeds, and glosses over their few personal weaknesses. With his friends, especially with those who failed to reach the pinnacle, like Adlai Stevenson, he sometimes resorts to biting irony. With himself, to self-deprecating humor. With his enemies, to scorn and venom. With ladies, always the gentleman.

Although he always worked for great men, Galbraith had deep respect and appreciation for great women. With Eleanor Roosevelt and Jacqueline Kennedy he felt even closer than with their presidential husbands. For him, to label them First Ladies is completely off the mark, and even slightly indecent. The title doesn't recognize independent intelligence and aptitude but is simply a consequence of marriage. As he recalls, "We thought of Eleanor Roosevelt as someone who, but for the accident of history and the prevailing constraints on gender, could have been President in her own right." As for Jackie, her main political asset was her detachment. She brought the Mémoires du Duc de Saint-Simon on the presidential campaign trail; like the great observer of the French royal court, she was able to judge people and see through the veil of decorum and flattery. The third woman referred to in the book is Catherine Galbraith, whom the author, for the same reason he was loath to use the title of First Lady, never designates as "my wife".

Always demanding with himself and with others, Ken Galbraith distributes badges of incompetence generously: to Nazi leadership, to US wartime business leaders, to bureaucrats at the Department of State, to military experts and Cold War warriors. He feels the need to correct history and to set the record straight on several major turning points of the twentieth century. Pointing the decision to declare war on the United States, or to hold fast at Stalingrad, he writes that "In the long history of military ineptitude, few can rival Hitler for strategic error." His economic advisor Albert Speer, whom he interrogated after German capitulation, was clever enough to get away with the Nazi crimes, but he was no less an incompetent scoundrel than the team of psychopaths and alcoholics he tried to distance himself from. Commenting on the last Viceroy of India, Galbraith writes that "Nothing in the twentieth century was so badly handled and with such disastrous consequences as Mountbatten's policies on Indian independence, leading as they did to the division of the subcontinent into three countries amidst conflict, mass migration and death."

On the other hand, Galbraith credits President Truman with the European Recovery Plan that is usually associated with the name of General Marshall, and which should have gone in history under the name of the Truman Plan. He also corrects the record on President Lyndon B. Johnson, one of the most misunderstood US President, who fell victim of the Vietnam tragedy. His misfortune was that "A man with a humane, astute and effective view and agenda on domestic social issues would be destroyed by a foreign and associated military policy on which he lacked experience, interest and self-confidence." But LBJ is also remembered for his earthly humor and popular quips. I was already familiar with his remark to Galbraith that "making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg: it seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else." There are a few other quotes of this sort, including a remark on the ineffective support provided by a Congress colleague--I can't reproduce the comparison here, but it has to do with the effect of a pantyhose on the penetration of intimate parts by a finger. Also worthwhile is the comparison between LBJ and Richard Nixon, when the author notes that "Being known by initials is an indicator of affection; this Nixon, in singular measure, was not accorded."

Although he served as Ambassador to India, JKG was not what is commonly understood as "a diplomat"--if the later means a sociable person of even temper and sophisticate manners, using understatement to obfuscate meaning and ceremonial to keep up appearances. He was very critical of the State Department's established beliefs during the Vietnam war, and his analysis as to why diplomacy breeds conservatism and is antithetic to free thinking would have pleased Popper, or Wittgenstein. He alludes to his fits of temper, like telling a public relation expert "in one of the most restrained expression at my command, that he could mind his own damn business," or reacting to an aide who was reminding him of protocol by telling him "in an obscene way what he could do to himself." But Galbraith is also capable of the most elegant language expressions, and he writes in a very engaging style. He has a taste for inverted sentences and for the elision of verbs that give his writing a very unique turn of phrase. His is a style I wish I could emulate, and a devotion to public service I also look up to.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buy This Book!, May 19, 2000

By 

Steve Martin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Name-Dropping: From FDR On (Hardcover)

What a great read this is. Galbraith brings out a personal side of people we could only imagine exists. Of course, he reveals the same of himself. (Ever see a picture of him smiling?) The book reads quickly. In fact, my only complaint about the book is that I got so relaxed while reading it that I fell asleep too easily. (I read late at night). I'm sure, as I did, you'll be envious of Galbraith's acquaintances with the "characaters" of this book. Buy it!