Buy used: $57.95
FREE delivery May 1 - 8
Or fastest delivery April 30 - May 3
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by StillwaterAM
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: This is a used book in very good condition shipped from Amazon. May contain signs of wear such as cover wear, spine wear, creases on pages, underlining, highlighting, or notes. Book is in very good, readable, and usable condition. May not include any CDs, extra media, or access codes.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Kindle app logo image

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.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

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

4.7 out of 5 stars 25

Incisive and original, John Kenneth Galbraith wrote with an eloquence that burst the conventions of his discipline and won a readership none of his fellow economists could match. This Library of America volume, the first devoted to economics, gathers four of his key early works, the books that established him as one of the leading public intellectuals of the last century.

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.

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Kenneth Galbraith was born in 1908 in Ontario, Canada. He earned a PhD at the University of California in 1934 and later took a fellowship at Cambridge, where he first encountered Keynesian economics. At different points in his life he taught at both Harvard and Princeton, and wrote more than forty books on an array of economic topics. During World War II he served as deputy head of the Office of Price Administration, charged with preventing inflation from crippling the war efforts, and also served as the US Ambassador to India during the Kennedy administration. He passed away in 2006.

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
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 25

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
John Kenneth Galbraith
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

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

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
25 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2011
This book from Amazon is something special. 1,000 pages free of Economists' jargon, thanks to the Galbraith writing style. He had the uncommon power to examine complex events and make sense of them, expressed with clarity.

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
17 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2010
My paperback copies of Galbraith's works, dating back to my undergrad days, were getting somewhat tatty and frail. When I saw this volume of collected works in hardback, I couldn't resist. J.K. Galbraith is, arguably, the most influential American economist of the 20th. century and there is something about Galbraith's style that makes difficult subjects easy to read and digest. His drole humour and witty asides make for an entertaining and informative read in what other boring economists have slaved long and hard to turn into 'The Dismal Science". Galbraith does for economics what Bertrand Russell does for philosophy: make an arcane, dry and seemingly incomprehensible subject area easy to understand.
26 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on December 3, 2012
Although Mr Galbraith's writings may seem passé, his deep insight and experience, especially in the postwar years up to the seventies make them particularly up to date now, when extreme market deregulation has resulted in another crisis, comparable to 1929 and the following years. A required reading .for scholars and non scholars with an interest in current affairs
4 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2013
This collection is written for the ages -- printed for the young.

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.
6 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2019
Erudite writing style. Very challenging and well written.
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2015
An excellent discussion of Galbraith's work, which applies directly to today's problems. Well worth reading - and studying!
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2015
I love these books, last well, easy to read
Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2015
Classic Galbraith but a bit text bookie for a general reader. Fine collection of the economists work, read it now before the presidential election as it will surely be referenced by candidates!!!
One person found this helpful
Report