Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the author
OK
Galbraith: The Affluent Society & Other Writings, 1952-1967: American Capitalism / The Great Crash, 1929 / The Affluent Society / The New Industrial State Hardcover – September 30, 2010
In American Capitalism, Galbraith exposes with great panache the myth of American free-market competition. The idea that an impersonal market sets prices and wages, and maintains balance between supply and demand, remained so vital in American economic thought, Galbraith argued, because oligopolistic American businessmen never acknowledged their collective power. Also overlooked was the way that groups such as unions and regulatory agencies react to large oligopolies by exerting countervailing power—a concept that was the book’s lasting contribution.
The Great Crash, 1929 offers a gripping account of the most legendary (and thus misunderstood) financial collapse in American history, as well as an inquiry into why it led to sustained depression. Galbraith posits five reasons: unusually high income inequality; a bad, overleveraged corporate structure; an unsound banking system; unbalanced foreign trade; and, finally, “the poor state of economic intelligence.” His account is a trenchant analysis of the 1929 crisis and a cautionary tale of ignorance and hubris among stock-market players; not surprisingly, the book was again a bestseller in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse.
In The Affluent Society, the book that introduced the phrase “the conventional wisdom” into the American lexicon, Galbraith takes on a shibboleth of free-market conservatives and Keynesian liberals alike: the paramount importance of production. For Galbraith, the American mania for production continued even in an era of unprecedented affluence, when the basic needs of all but an impoverished minority had easily been met. Thus the creation of new and spurious needs through advertising—leading to skyrocketing consumer debt, and eventually a private sector that is glutted at the expense of a starved public sector.
The New Industrial State stands as the most developed exposition of Galbraith’s major themes. Examining the giant postwar corporations, Galbraith argued that the “technostructure” necessary for such vast organizations—comprising specialists in operations, marketing, and R&D—is primarily concerned with reducing risk, not with maximizing profits; it perpetuates stability through “the planning system.” The book concludes with a prescient analysis of the “educational and scientific estate,” which prefigures the “information economy” that has emerged since the book was published.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
- Print length1056 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLibrary of America
- Publication dateSeptember 30, 2010
- Dimensions5.1 x 1.3 x 8.2 inches
- ISBN-109781598530773
- ISBN-13978-1598530773
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 1598530771
- Publisher : Library of America; First Edition (September 30, 2010)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 1056 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9781598530773
- ISBN-13 : 978-1598530773
- Item Weight : 1.7 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.1 x 1.3 x 8.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,458,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,898 in Economic History (Books)
- #51,590 in United States History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
We owe it to THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA who keeps in print editions of significant writing.
The Library has gathered together four major works of Professor John Kenneth Galbraith written between 1952 to 1967. The inference is that Galbraith had something important to say in the middle of the last century and his views are worth repeating.
It is hardly possible to read Galbraith's account of The Great Crash, 1929, without measuring against it, the events of the new Great Crash that began 1n 2008. Of course the crashes were not identical but some commonalities are difficult to ignore. There is little comfort in the similarities but his account of 1929 alerts us to the inadequacy and inaccuracies bandied about so freely by political and business leaders.
It needs to be acknowledged that the current Financial Crisis is Global, so much more so than in 1929. And the present 2011 Crisis has been exaggerated by newer Institutions such as the European Union. However there still remains much in common with 1929.
Firstly, Galbraith draws attention to what he calls Incantation. Then, as now, political and business leaders ritually recite words and phrases designed to be of comfort of exhibit great wisdom. In fact the incantations are used as magic spells to calm the worried listeners, when in fact in most cases the causes of our concerns remain unchanged and unchallenged. Some evidence of this is that, here we are, a few years later hearing the same words of comfort and the same claims of special knowledge but the world remains in financial turmoil. Voters, share markets and shareholders are the targets of Incantation.
Secondly, among the many points made by Galbraith is that the Crash lasted much longer than the soothing pundits suggested. And yet daily for 3 years or more, those in authority, and commentators, reassured listeners that the good old days are about to return. Share market analysts continue to talk up the market in the face of graphs demonstrating how far the markets have plunged, and they fail to explain what new events are bound to bring about a return to the good times.
Of more than passing interest are the author's comments on the alleged suicide rate in 1929/30. And his account of Short Selling is a worthy read, given the popularity today. My guess is he would be amused at the suggestion that Short Selling is desirable because it brings liquidity to the share market.
Finally, it will be evident that a brief review of the 1,000 pages will leave gaps. So it is time to turn to another of his significant works; The Affluent Society. In Chapter 2, Galbraith coined the Concept of the Conventional Wisdom. After more than 50 years the term Conventional Wisdom is used widely in books, journals and newspapers. For this concept, this phrase, Galbraith will be long remembered.
Acceptable ideas have great stability, Galbraith points out,and such ideas are highly esteemed Such ideas are labelled by Galbraith as Conventional Wisdom.
But what if those ideas are in error? What is the test? As the author points out, the enemy of Conventional Wisdom is the march of events. Actual events put ideas to the test and sometimes they fail the test. Ideas that lose their relevance to the world are exposed as Conventional Wisdom.
If we need a refresher on Socialism, Captitalism, Poverty, the role of Agriculture and a myriad of key topics, this Galbraith compendium belongs on our library shelves.
Richard Glenister
BA (hons)
La Trobe University
Melbourne Australia
Some of these works are hard to find in print individually so it's great to be able to get them at all. This collection saves space and weight by using what one might call bible-page print. So get some nice magnifier glasses before sitting down with this tome.






