The Keynesian Revolution in the Making, 1924-1936 (Clarendon Paperbacks) - Softcover

Clarke, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198202199 ISBN 13: 9780198202196

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 1990

Synopsis

The name of John Maynard Keynes is still the focus of political and economic controversy, and in the course of it, "what Keynes really meant" has suffered much distortion. This book represents a quest for the historical Keynes. It follows the story of an argument which arose out of the performance of the British economy in the period of depression between the wars and provides an account of Keynes's thinking in the years that led up to the General Theory, making it comprehensible to specialists and non-specialists alike.

About this title

Review

`a bold and exciting book ... a gem of historical insight and scholarship, which glitters with striking phrases and images ... a much richer, more precise, context for the development of Keynes's ideas than anything we have had so far'Robert Skidelsky, New Statesman and Society

`brilliant and meticulous essay ... He [Clarke] is to be congratulated on a scholarly tour de force'Guardian

`brilliant new study'Observer

`The Keynesian Revolution in the Making leaves the reader with the feeling of having been a privileged fly on the wall as the new truths fell into place. Dr Clarke has put together a remarkable cocktail which mixes economic, political, intellectual and institutional history.'Independent

`elegant and absorbing book ... It is skilfully constructed, utterly lucid, and therefore accessible to all students of Keynes, for whom it will be necessary reading'London Review of Books

`In this brilliant new study ... Peter Clarke rescues the man from the monument, the thinker from the thought. David Marquand, Times of India

`This book ranks among the very best on Keynes and deserves the widest audience.' Times Literary Supplement

`the sensitive and subtle combination of close textual analysis and historical context make The Keynesian Revolution in the Making 1924-1936 essential reading for economists, and not just the specialist historians of economic thought who will find the ground familiar, though rarely covered with this clarity' Roger Middleton, TLS

`The book will be exceedingly useful for both economists and economic historians. I liked it for two main reasons: first, for its clarity in describing the evolution of Keynes's thinking, and second, because the context and content of the debates in the late 1920s and early 1930s over the reconciliation of internal and external equilbrium have an uncanny contemporary ring about them, and history has lessons to teach.' A.P. Thirlwall, University of Kent. THES

`a piece of detailed intellectual history upon which both economic and political historians will exercise their minds' R.C. Whiting, University of Leeds, History No. 243 Feb 1990

Synopsis

This book tells the story of the argument over the performance of the British economy in the period of depression between the two World Wars. It was an argument about policy, assessing what it was administratively feasible and technically sensible for government to attempt. Secondly, it was at crucial stages a political argument, challenging the conventional view of the economic role of the state and bringing political parties into electoral competition. Thirdly, it became an argument about economic theory, as the analysis of unemployment itself emerged as a professionally contentious matter. Keynes played a central role in each of these overlapping disputes and the book sets out to understand his ideas. It follows the course of the argument in which he was engaged - into the province of government, into the arena of politics, and into the discipline of economics - over a period of a dozen years. This is a scholarly study of one of the major thinkers of the 20th century.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0198202199
• ISBN 13: 9780198202196
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 364