John Maynard Keynes

First edition copy of Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money.

• John Maynard Keynes (English).
• London: Macmillan and Co, 1936.
• xii, 403 pp.
• 8vo.
• Original blue-green publisher's cloth, spine gilt.

From the moment of publication to the current day, it’s difficult to overstate the impact Keynes and his General Theory has had on the field of macroeconomics. “The world-wide slump after 1929 prompted Keynes to attempt an explanation of, and new methods for controlling, the vagaries of the trade cycle… [h]e subjected the definitions and theories of the classical school of economists to a penetrating scrutiny and found them seriously inadequate and inaccurate” (PMM). Controversial and divisive, it was received with enthusiasm by some and dismissed as a recipe for inflation by others. Put briefly, his analysis demonstrated that “[e]conomic policy should [ultimately] provide for the management of demand as a means of controlling the level of output and seek to ensure the fullest possible use of available resources” (ODNB). Keynes’s General Theory provides an invaluable critique and thus is a sort of companion volume of the likes of Adam Smith. Indeed, this and The Wealth of Nations should be considered the two pillars of any serious collection of books on economics.

PMM 423.