Interviews with John Kenneth Galbraith

For over half a century, Canadian-born John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908) has been among most visible of public intellectuals. His articulate and controversial best-selling books-including The Affluent Society, Economics and Public Purpose, and The New Industrial State-and his very partisan liberal Democrat political and public service activities secured a place for him among rich and famous of his time. He worked as an adviser to President John F. Kennedy, served as U.S. ambassador to India (1961-1963), and edited Fortune magazine during mid-1940s. Among American economists of any era, he is rivaled only by Thorstein Veblen for introduction of phrases that take on a life of their own in literate idiom. Such Galbraithian phrases as the conventional wisdom and society have become familiar even beyond Galbraith's remarkably wide readership. No other economist of twentieth century, excepting perhaps John Maynard Keynes, can claim so secure a place in belles-lettres of English-speaking world. This collection of interviews documents long career of an influential economist and political philosopher who has spent much of his professional life in public eye. Many of interviews are occasioned by publication of his books and contain their key themes such as importance of Keynes, need to include power in economic thinking, and neglected priorities of aesthetics, poverty, and environment in affluent America. The interviews also indicate Galbraith's wide-ranging public service and his frequent hobnobbing with political and intellectual elite. Through collection, which spans over four decades, Galbraith's erudition, wit, and impassioned liberalism shine through, making this volume an essential companion to his works. James Ronald Stanfield, a professor of economics at Colorado State University, is author of John Kenneth Galbraith, The Economic Thought of Karl Polanyi: Lives and Livelihood, and Economics, Power, and Culture: Essays in Development of Radical Institutionalism. Jacqueline Bloom Stanfield, a professor of sociology at University of Northern Colorado, is author of Married with Careers: Coping with Role Strain. Her work has appeared in such periodicals as Social Science Journal, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and Review of Social Economy.

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