Samuelson Friedman: The Battle Over the Free Market - Hardcover

Nicholas Wapshott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393285189 ISBN 13: 9780393285185

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2021

Synopsis

From the author of the critically acclaimed Keynes Hayek, the next great duel in the history of economics.

In 1966 two columnists joined Newsweek magazine. Their assignment: debate the world of business and economics. Paul Samuelson was a towering figure in Keynesian economics, which supported the management of the economy along lines prescribed by John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory. Milton Friedman, little known at that time outside conservative academic circles, championed “monetarism” and insisted the Federal Reserve maintain tight control over the amount of money circulating in the economy.

In the nimble hands of author and journalist Nicholas Wapshott, Samuelson and Friedman’s decades-long argument becomes a window through which to view one of the longest periods of economic turmoil in the United States. As the soaring economy of the 1950s gave way to decades stalked by declining prosperity and “stagflation”, it was a time when the theory and practice of economics became the preoccupation of politicians and the focus of national debate. It is an argument that continues today.

About this title

About the Author

<strong>Nicholas Wapshott</strong>'s many books include biographies of Margaret Thatcher and Carol Reed, <em>Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics</em>, and <em>The Sphinx: Franklin Roosevelt, the Isolationists, and the Road to World War II</em>. He lives in New York City.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Nicholas Wapshott and Keynes Hayek

"I heartily recommend Nicholas Wapshott's...Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics...Many books have been written about Keynes, but nobody else has told the story properly of his relationship with Hayek. [Wapshott] has filled the gap in splendid fashion, and I defy anybody--Keynesian, Hayekian, or uncommitted--to read his work and not learn something new."
-- John Cassidy, The New Yorker

"Keynes Hayek does an excellent job of setting out the broader history behind this revival of the old debates. Wapshott brings the personalities to life, provides more useful information on the debates than any other source, and miraculously manages to write for both the lay reader and the expert at the same time. Virtually every page is gripping, and yet even the professional economist will glean some insight."
--Tyler Cowen, National Review

"Mr. Wapshott has written an important book. It is compelling not only as a history of two distinctive thinkers and their influence, but also as a narrative of political decision-making and its underlying priorities...Underlying Mr. Wapshott's analysis are vital questions for this moment in American history: What kind of society do we want? And what do we owe to our fellow citizens and our collective future?"
-- Nancy F. Koehn, New York Times

Edition details

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393285189
• ISBN 13: 9780393285185
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352