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John Maynard Keynes #1-3
John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman
THE DEFINITIVE SINGLE-VOLUME BIOGRAPHY
Robert Skidelsky's three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes has been acclaimed as the authoritative account of the great economist-statesman's life. Here, Skidelsky has revised and abridged his magnum opus into one definitive book, which examines in its entirety the intellectual and ideological journey that led an extraordinarily gifted young man to concern himself with the practical problems of an age overshadowed by war. John Maynard Keynes offers a sympathetic account of the life of a passionate visionary and an invaluable insight into the economic philosophy that still remains at the centre of political and economic thought.
ROBERT SKIDELSKY is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three volume biography of John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations. ('This three-volume life of the British economist should be given a Nobel Prize for History if there was such a thing' - Norman Stone.) He was made a life peer in 1991, and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994.
'A masterpiece of biographical and historical analysis' - New York Times
Robert Skidelsky's three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes has been acclaimed as the authoritative account of the great economist-statesman's life. Here, Skidelsky has revised and abridged his magnum opus into one definitive book, which examines in its entirety the intellectual and ideological journey that led an extraordinarily gifted young man to concern himself with the practical problems of an age overshadowed by war. John Maynard Keynes offers a sympathetic account of the life of a passionate visionary and an invaluable insight into the economic philosophy that still remains at the centre of political and economic thought.
ROBERT SKIDELSKY is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three volume biography of John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations. ('This three-volume life of the British economist should be given a Nobel Prize for History if there was such a thing' - Norman Stone.) He was made a life peer in 1991, and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1994.
'A masterpiece of biographical and historical analysis' - New York Times
1021 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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About the author
Robert Skidelsky
67 books131 followersLord Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His three volume biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations. He is the author of the The World After Communism (1995) (American edition called The Road from Serfdom). He was made a life peer in 1991, and was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1994. He is chairman of the Govenors of Brighton College
Robert Skidelsky was born on 25 April 1939 in Harbin, Manchuria. His parents were British subjects, but of Russian ancestry. His father worked for the family firm, L. S. Skidelsky, which leased the Mulin coalmine from the Chinese government. When war broke out between Britain and Japan in December 1941, he and his parents were interned first in Manchuria then Japan, but released in exchange for Japanese internees in England.
From 1953 to 1958, he was a boarder at Brighton College (of which he is now chairman of the board of governors). He went on to read history at Jesus College, Oxford, and from 1961 to 1969, he was successively research student, senior student, and research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. In 1967, he published his first book, Politicians and the Slump, Labour Government of 1929-31, based on his D.Phil dissertation. The book explores the ways in which British politicians handled the Great Depression.
During a two year research fellowship at the British Academy, he began work in his biography of Sir Oswald Mosley (published in 1975) and published English Progressive Schools (1969). In 1970, he became an Associate Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University. But the controversy surrounding the publication of his biography of Sir Oswald Mosley - in which he was felt to have let Mosley off too lightly - led John Hopkins University to refuse him tenure. Oxford University also proved unwilling to give him a permanent post.
In 1978, he was appointed Professor of International Studies at the University of Warwick, where he has since remained, though joining the Economics Department as Professor Political Economy in 1990. He is currently Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
The first volume of his biography of John Maynard Keynes, Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920, was published in 1983. The second volume, The Economist as Saviour, 1920-1937 (1992) won the Wolfson Prize for History. The third volume, Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946 (2000) won the Duff Cooper Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Arthur Ross Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations.
Since 2003, he has been a non-executive director of the mutual fund manager, Janus Capital and Rusnano Capital; from 2008-10 he sat on the board of Sistema JSC. He is a director of the Moscow School of Political Studies and was the founder and executive secretary of the UK/Russia Round Table. Since 2002, he has been chairman of the Centre for Global Studies. In 2010, he joined the Advisory Board of the Institute of New Economic Thinking.
He writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate, "Against the Current", which is syndicated in newspapers all over the world. His account of the current economic crisis, Keynes: The Return of the Master, was published by Penguin Allen Lane in September 2009. A short history of twentieth-century Britain was published by Random House in the volume A World by Itself: A History of the British Isles edited by Jonathan Clark in January 2010. He is now in the process of writing How Much is Enough? The Economics of the Good Life jointly with his son Edward Skidelsky.
Robert Skidelsky was born on 25 April 1939 in Harbin, Manchuria. His parents were British subjects, but of Russian ancestry. His father worked for the family firm, L. S. Skidelsky, which leased the Mulin coalmine from the Chinese government. When war broke out between Britain and Japan in December 1941, he and his parents were interned first in Manchuria then Japan, but released in exchange for Japanese internees in England.
From 1953 to 1958, he was a boarder at Brighton College (of which he is now chairman of the board of governors). He went on to read history at Jesus College, Oxford, and from 1961 to 1969, he was successively research student, senior student, and research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. In 1967, he published his first book, Politicians and the Slump, Labour Government of 1929-31, based on his D.Phil dissertation. The book explores the ways in which British politicians handled the Great Depression.
During a two year research fellowship at the British Academy, he began work in his biography of Sir Oswald Mosley (published in 1975) and published English Progressive Schools (1969). In 1970, he became an Associate Professor at the School of Advanced International Studies, John Hopkins University. But the controversy surrounding the publication of his biography of Sir Oswald Mosley - in which he was felt to have let Mosley off too lightly - led John Hopkins University to refuse him tenure. Oxford University also proved unwilling to give him a permanent post.
In 1978, he was appointed Professor of International Studies at the University of Warwick, where he has since remained, though joining the Economics Department as Professor Political Economy in 1990. He is currently Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
The first volume of his biography of John Maynard Keynes, Hopes Betrayed, 1883-1920, was published in 1983. The second volume, The Economist as Saviour, 1920-1937 (1992) won the Wolfson Prize for History. The third volume, Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946 (2000) won the Duff Cooper Prize, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, the Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Arthur Ross Council on Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations.
Since 2003, he has been a non-executive director of the mutual fund manager, Janus Capital and Rusnano Capital; from 2008-10 he sat on the board of Sistema JSC. He is a director of the Moscow School of Political Studies and was the founder and executive secretary of the UK/Russia Round Table. Since 2002, he has been chairman of the Centre for Global Studies. In 2010, he joined the Advisory Board of the Institute of New Economic Thinking.
He writes a monthly column for Project Syndicate, "Against the Current", which is syndicated in newspapers all over the world. His account of the current economic crisis, Keynes: The Return of the Master, was published by Penguin Allen Lane in September 2009. A short history of twentieth-century Britain was published by Random House in the volume A World by Itself: A History of the British Isles edited by Jonathan Clark in January 2010. He is now in the process of writing How Much is Enough? The Economics of the Good Life jointly with his son Edward Skidelsky.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 2, 2020
Keynes’s paradox, which few could grasp and which many would find unacceptable today if expressed in ordinary language, is that horrendous events may have trivial causes, and easy remedies.
This is an ambitious and impressive biography of one of the most influential men of the last century. Robert Skidelsky was a pure historian before turning his attention to economics; and in this book he attempts to do justice to Keynes’s moment in history as well as his ideas. It does not make for light reading. After trying to read Keynes’s own General Theory and finding many parts of it impenetrable, I hoped that Skidelsky’s book would provide a gentler introduction to Keynes’s ideas. But this this book is not economics for dummies.
The hardest going sections were not, however, the bits devoted to economic theory, but the detailed reports of negotiations and plans undertaken by Keynes in his many official capacities. Here is just an example:
Keynes’s main effort to get the Stablization Fund to put on the clothes of the Clearing Union was his proposal to monetise unitas. The crucial structural difference between the Clearing Bank and the Stabilization Fund set-ups was that in the Keynes Plan member central banks banked with the central banks. Member central banks would subscribe their quotas to the Fund’s account…
And so on. Probably there are a fair number of readers who could follow this sort of writing with interest, but at the moment I am not one of them.
It would be seriously unfair, however, to suggest that the whole of the book is like this. Many parts are quite entertaining. The beginning years are especially so, when Keynes was in Cambridge and then a member of the famed Bloomsbury Group. I was surprised and amused at the open homosexuality of Keynes’s milieu, and the fluidity of his sexual life. Of more lasting interest, of course, is the intellectual climate in which the young economist was growing up. Skidelsky is wonderful when it comes to intellectual history, and he able shows how the circulating theories shaped Keynes’s attitudes for the rest of his life. I would not have guessed, for example, that Keynes was so deeply influenced by G.E. Moore’s Principia Ethica.
Skidelsky is also very skilled in his ability to trace the growth of Keynes’s major intellectual theories. He does this by pairing the influence of the historical moment with the inner machinations of Keynes’s mind, showing how the economist used, adapted, and discarded the economic orthodoxy he inherited when faced with the Great Depression. The chapter on the General Theory—Keyne’s most important book—is lucid and will greatly aid my further understanding of macro-economics. Thus, in the most essential task of a Keynes’s biography, Skidelsky undoubtedly succeeded.
Apart from the dryness and density of some sections of the book—mostly concentrated in the last chapters, when Keynes was heavily involved in planning for the post-WWII economy—the book has other flaws. The most notable, for me, was probably a consequence of Skidelsky’s intellectual seriousness. That is, he is so focused on Keynes’s ideas that Keynes himself can be left behind. Strangely, though one learns a great deal about Keynes, one seldom feels that one has “met” him. The economist’s personality remains rather vague and distant.
It would be generous to call this biography a page-turner. But Keynes is perhaps not the ideal subject for a readable biography. As Skidelsky repeatedly notes, Keynes was born into privilege and remained there the rest of his life. He was a thoroughbred member of the Establishment. Thus there is no spectacle of a struggling underdog or of rags to riches. Further, much of Keynes’s influence and activity resided in the intricacies of trade arrangements, exchange rates, currency valuations, and so on. He can come across as a hyper-competent civil servant.
There was another side to Keynes, however, which is quite a bit more attractive. As already mentioned, he was a member of the Bloomsbury Group—friends with Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf—and deeply valued all of the arts. He spent a great deal of time and money supporting his painter friends, and was heavily involved in the world of ballet and theater through his wife. In spite of his great practical gifts and his flair for finance, Keynes was not a crass materialist and consistently thought that the good life required more than ready cash.
Politically speaking, Keynes appears to have not been particularly ideological. He could not be readily assimilable into the Right or the Left, and instead preached a “middle way” based largely on competence rather than values. As Skidelsky notes, “Keynes was moved to wrath not so much by a ‘fiery passion for justice and equality’, as by ‘an impatience with how badly society was managed’.” This is not an altogether winsome quality, I think; though it does have a certain appeal—a world of ultra-efficient technocrats resolving problems without partisan bickering.
Indeed, as Skidelsky notes, this was largely the promise of the Keynesian Revolution, which more or less collapsed in the 1970s. In the final section of the book Skidelsky includes an even-handed evaluation of the successes and failures of Keynes’s ideas in practice. Certainly I am not qualfied to judge myself. But I do think that, as we look another depression in the face, we will be thinking an awful lot more about Keynes in the coming months.
November 26, 2023
Keynes led an extraordinary life. This biography is a match for it. If the size puts you off: I enjoyed it enough that I've read many parts several times.
October 31, 2014
Wow, this was a bit of a marathon for me. Not an easy book to read, especially if, like me, your economics knowledge is basic. I read it for the Bloomsbury content, which is plentiful in this mammoth biography (abridged and updated from a three volume set), especially before the end of the First World War. The detail is impressive and comprehensive, but a lot of the economics was lost on me. Keynes comes across as extremely intelligent, a diligent worker on behalf of his country, and equally on behalf of the artistic community in the first half of the 20th Century. His marriage to ballerina Lydia Lopokova, although surprising to his Bloomsbury friends, was as successful as his career, and although they didn't get on that well with her, she comes across as quirky and bohemian as they were, though out of their league in the intellectual stakes (their main criticism).
Luckily the book is set out in small sections within chapters, so it made it more digestible, but it still took a couple of months to read. Worthwhile persevering though.
Luckily the book is set out in small sections within chapters, so it made it more digestible, but it still took a couple of months to read. Worthwhile persevering though.
April 23, 2012
It may be a long time before I get to the second 80% of this (so to speak...) -- maybe after austerity and monetarism both fail, over the next 2-3 years, I'll be forced to pick up here where I left off. For those interested in Bloomsbury, though, the first 20% of this will be fascinating.
A profound and magisterial study of a very important figure... Also VERY, very long
A profound and magisterial study of a very important figure... Also VERY, very long
April 7, 2013
Really liked this: especially the account of intellectual life in the early twentieth century, and within moral sciences in particular. Plus wars, depression, culture and someone who made a difference.
July 31, 2019
A masterfully written and well researched biography.
This book illuminates the life of a brilliant (and strange) person and the environments his life was situated in.
This is a long and slow read but worth it; one of the better biographies out there.
This book illuminates the life of a brilliant (and strange) person and the environments his life was situated in.
This is a long and slow read but worth it; one of the better biographies out there.
May 21, 2024
A Great Book in many ways. Surprisingly sarcastic in a way that betrays Skidelsky’s age and social class.
Most people should probably just read the Zachary Carter biography unless you are obsessed with Keynes or going deep for a research project (like me). Also, it seems there is little reason to read the original three volumes as opposed to this abridged version, which are hard to find in print now anyway.
Most people should probably just read the Zachary Carter biography unless you are obsessed with Keynes or going deep for a research project (like me). Also, it seems there is little reason to read the original three volumes as opposed to this abridged version, which are hard to find in print now anyway.
July 8, 2016
I had to pretend to be Keynes for a project and a few people told me this was the thing to read.
It's epic. Nearly 900 pages.
But, they are mostly needed as Keyne's wrote so widely about so much *not* just about economics, but about Philosophy, Probability, even about the life of Newton. Also, Keyne's changed his views on stuff a lot, to his credit.
I also found it really readable.
There are so many interesting things that Keynes worked on. But here are just three that you may not know about:
1. He managed the Allies budgets during the first world war. He was at the Treaty of Versailles where he argued that Allies should cancel some of the debts between countries. He resigned in protest when all these debts were heaped on Germany in form of unpayable reparations. He argued this would have dire consequences. It did. Look at the rise of Fascism & weep as we see it happening again.
2. He did all the number crunching for the report Beveridge wrote which laid the foundation for our Welfare State.
3. In 1930 he wrote a pamphlet called ‘The Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren’ where he said in the future we would have a new disease ’technological unemployment’. That in the future, today, our main problem would be working out what to do with our time.
How wrong he was. Because we’ve found something to do. Blame migrants and minorities for our problems, or blame those blaming migrants. Rather than come up with a new politics for the 21st Century. A new politics where we accept that the jobs that have gone (mostly to China, many to technology) are not coming back. Where we have a positive vision for new ways to give our lives identity and meaning aside from being in full time work or belonging to a nation state.
It's epic. Nearly 900 pages.
But, they are mostly needed as Keyne's wrote so widely about so much *not* just about economics, but about Philosophy, Probability, even about the life of Newton. Also, Keyne's changed his views on stuff a lot, to his credit.
I also found it really readable.
There are so many interesting things that Keynes worked on. But here are just three that you may not know about:
1. He managed the Allies budgets during the first world war. He was at the Treaty of Versailles where he argued that Allies should cancel some of the debts between countries. He resigned in protest when all these debts were heaped on Germany in form of unpayable reparations. He argued this would have dire consequences. It did. Look at the rise of Fascism & weep as we see it happening again.
2. He did all the number crunching for the report Beveridge wrote which laid the foundation for our Welfare State.
3. In 1930 he wrote a pamphlet called ‘The Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren’ where he said in the future we would have a new disease ’technological unemployment’. That in the future, today, our main problem would be working out what to do with our time.
How wrong he was. Because we’ve found something to do. Blame migrants and minorities for our problems, or blame those blaming migrants. Rather than come up with a new politics for the 21st Century. A new politics where we accept that the jobs that have gone (mostly to China, many to technology) are not coming back. Where we have a positive vision for new ways to give our lives identity and meaning aside from being in full time work or belonging to a nation state.
Read
July 29, 2011Excellent book...
December 3, 2012
Very good read.
August 12, 2022
Through Skidelsky, I fell in love with Keyes' mind. This book is as much about philosophy as it economics, and it follows the true range of Keynes' interests: from statistics, to investment, politics, and the arts.
Keynes' major contributions include:
-Representative to 1919 Treaty of Versailles signing. Advocated for lowering Germany's payments. Keynes' book The Economic Consequences of Peace details his views.
-Wrote A Treatise on Probability
-Argued against staying on the gold standard*
-Helped design the Bretton Woods agreement
-Anti-austerity. Counter to neo-classical economics, argued for raising aggregate demand through fiscal expansion at the cost of temporary budgetary deficits. In Keynes' model, demand drives supply. Keynesian economics drove the response to the Great Depression, but fell out of favor out of the stagflation of the 70s. **
-Forecasting economic futures (e.g. Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren***, predictions on automation and labor)
Keynes studied mathematics, was involved in the Bloomsbury Group (an intellectual community including Virginia Woolf, had an extensive philosophical foray into probability (including an anti-Bayesian approach), and was a truly great intellectual thinker.
*Keynes emphasized the necessity of eliminating the gold standard, thereby enabling the use of domestic policy to alleviate economic troubles at home. The competitive struggle for markets, the deprivation or forcing of goods, used as a last resort by countries trapped by the gold standard, was a chief cause of international dissent. Keynes believed “If nations can learn to provide themselves with full employment by their domestic policy...there need be no important economic forces calculated to set the interest of one country against that of its neighbors.” (General Theory) Provide full employment, and civil dissent may be avoided; utilize domestic policy rather than manipulating trade balances, and war may be avoided.
**Keynes’ proposal to lower the interest rate was not only a way out of depression, but a realization of his philosophy on accumulation. A low interest rate would raise the propensity to consume, stimulate investment, and, if adjusted properly, provide full employment. Eliminating the incentive to use money as storer of wealth allows for “the euthanasia of the rentier”, moving society one step toward disavowing their love of money. In addition to management of interest rate, Keynes proposes direct taxation as a method to achieve full employment. Keynes posits that excessive savings is in detriment to growing the propensity to consume and investment. A redistribution of wealth via taxation will correct for the failing of the market to make most efficient use of capital and support Keynes’ goal of full employment.
*** Keynes' vision for the future, while optimistic, was flawed. When Keynes forecasted a utopia, he predicated its arrival on three factors: population control, avoiding wars and dissention, and letting science be. Population control has not been achieved in all parts of the world; we have fallen multiple times to wars and dissention; and we have politicized science many times over through control of capital to research and industry. Additionally, Keynes’ essay failed to account for the change in absolute needs relative to changes in quality provided through technological advances. And this is putting aside additional factors such as growing inequality and climate change that were unaccounted for. Despite all this, I still find Keynes' optimism inspiring.
Keynes' major contributions include:
-Representative to 1919 Treaty of Versailles signing. Advocated for lowering Germany's payments. Keynes' book The Economic Consequences of Peace details his views.
-Wrote A Treatise on Probability
-Argued against staying on the gold standard*
-Helped design the Bretton Woods agreement
-Anti-austerity. Counter to neo-classical economics, argued for raising aggregate demand through fiscal expansion at the cost of temporary budgetary deficits. In Keynes' model, demand drives supply. Keynesian economics drove the response to the Great Depression, but fell out of favor out of the stagflation of the 70s. **
-Forecasting economic futures (e.g. Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren***, predictions on automation and labor)
Keynes studied mathematics, was involved in the Bloomsbury Group (an intellectual community including Virginia Woolf, had an extensive philosophical foray into probability (including an anti-Bayesian approach), and was a truly great intellectual thinker.
*Keynes emphasized the necessity of eliminating the gold standard, thereby enabling the use of domestic policy to alleviate economic troubles at home. The competitive struggle for markets, the deprivation or forcing of goods, used as a last resort by countries trapped by the gold standard, was a chief cause of international dissent. Keynes believed “If nations can learn to provide themselves with full employment by their domestic policy...there need be no important economic forces calculated to set the interest of one country against that of its neighbors.” (General Theory) Provide full employment, and civil dissent may be avoided; utilize domestic policy rather than manipulating trade balances, and war may be avoided.
**Keynes’ proposal to lower the interest rate was not only a way out of depression, but a realization of his philosophy on accumulation. A low interest rate would raise the propensity to consume, stimulate investment, and, if adjusted properly, provide full employment. Eliminating the incentive to use money as storer of wealth allows for “the euthanasia of the rentier”, moving society one step toward disavowing their love of money. In addition to management of interest rate, Keynes proposes direct taxation as a method to achieve full employment. Keynes posits that excessive savings is in detriment to growing the propensity to consume and investment. A redistribution of wealth via taxation will correct for the failing of the market to make most efficient use of capital and support Keynes’ goal of full employment.
*** Keynes' vision for the future, while optimistic, was flawed. When Keynes forecasted a utopia, he predicated its arrival on three factors: population control, avoiding wars and dissention, and letting science be. Population control has not been achieved in all parts of the world; we have fallen multiple times to wars and dissention; and we have politicized science many times over through control of capital to research and industry. Additionally, Keynes’ essay failed to account for the change in absolute needs relative to changes in quality provided through technological advances. And this is putting aside additional factors such as growing inequality and climate change that were unaccounted for. Despite all this, I still find Keynes' optimism inspiring.
August 10, 2020
An exhaustively researched book on the life of Keynes, but unfortunately a very challenging and confusing book to read. Unlike other exhaustively-researched biographies, I had to re-read so many pages in this biography to understand just what exactly the author was talking about. If re-reading those passages failed to clear up my question, which it often did, I would have to resort to researching the issue on the internet. This is the book's greatest failure.
Some of the confusion related to poor editing. For example, the author would use pronouns when it was totally unclear who or what he was referring to. Other times, the confusion related to substantive subject matters. One example, during negotiations between Keynes and USA representatives to determine the post-WWII financial order, a big sticking point between the two countries was the topic of "imperial preference." As far as I could determine, the book failed to directly explain what "imperial preference" was. (I had to google it.) Another example: the book also failed to explain why the issue of avoiding sterling convertability, another sticking point, was so important to England.
These are just two examples of the countless times that the author failed to anticipate average reader questions. I suppose addressing these issues throughout the book would have lengthened the biography by, say, 15%? I don't know. But I do know that I'd much rather read a 1,000-page book that stands comprehensively on its own, than an 880-page book that requires me to reference the internet every 10 pages or so.
The three stars are for the clearly exhaustive effort the author put into researching Keynes. I did end up learning quite a lot about Keynes, but not without great and extra effort on my own behalf.
Some of the confusion related to poor editing. For example, the author would use pronouns when it was totally unclear who or what he was referring to. Other times, the confusion related to substantive subject matters. One example, during negotiations between Keynes and USA representatives to determine the post-WWII financial order, a big sticking point between the two countries was the topic of "imperial preference." As far as I could determine, the book failed to directly explain what "imperial preference" was. (I had to google it.) Another example: the book also failed to explain why the issue of avoiding sterling convertability, another sticking point, was so important to England.
These are just two examples of the countless times that the author failed to anticipate average reader questions. I suppose addressing these issues throughout the book would have lengthened the biography by, say, 15%? I don't know. But I do know that I'd much rather read a 1,000-page book that stands comprehensively on its own, than an 880-page book that requires me to reference the internet every 10 pages or so.
The three stars are for the clearly exhaustive effort the author put into researching Keynes. I did end up learning quite a lot about Keynes, but not without great and extra effort on my own behalf.
July 12, 2024
Robert Skidelsky is a British economic historian and emeritus professor of political economy at Warwick University. Skidelsky’s three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes (1983, 1992, and 2000) has won five prizes, including the 1993 Wolfson History Prize. In addition, Skidelsky’s three-volume biography is considered by many economists to be the benchmark biography of John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the most influential economist.
What are the book’s specifics?
Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes: 1883–1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman, hereafter, ‘JMK: 1883–1946’, is the abridged version of his award-winning three-volume biography. Although JMK: 1883–1946 is 40 per cent smaller than the three-volume version, the book, excluding introduction, references, dramatic personae and index, is still an 853-page, or around a 340,000-word, adventure. Not a light read by any stretch of the imagination.
Who might like the book?
JMK: 1883–1946 will appeal to people who appreciate exemplary scholarship and fine detail. Readers might also appreciate the economic and twentieth-century political and social history woven throughout the book. Although, if the political machinations of international relations frustrate, then sections of JMK: 1883–1946 may not be enjoyable. Furthermore, Keynes’s ideas discussed in the book require some understanding of the quantity theory of money, effective demand, the balance of payments, the gold standard, fiscal and monetary policy and different exchange rate regimes. Readers unfamiliar with these topics may need to read more widely than the book to appreciate the book thoroughly.
What ground does the book cover?
Skidelsky does not leave many stones unturned. He begins JMK: 1883–1946 with a brief genealogy and sketch of the lives of Keynes’s parents. These early sketches emphasise his father’s foray into political economy, his choice to take an administration position at Cambridge University and life at Cambridge as each affected Keynes’s life profoundly. Skidelsky then focuses on Keynes’s early years, emphasising his academic life at Eton College and then King’s College, Cambridge. Next, Keynes’s membership of the Bloomsbury Group and his time in the India Office are explored. Next, Skidelsky goes into detail about Keynes’s relationships and personal ethics, with conclusions drawn by Skidelsky from Keynes’s private letters. Skidelsky also weaves in a narrative of the initially surprising but harmonious marriage to the Russian ballet dancer Lydia Lopokov. Skidelsky then shifts gears, and the book’s focus turns to Keynes’s public life. For example, the reader learns of Keynes’s contributions to the war effort whilst working at the British Treasury and his anger at the treaty of Versailles that resulted in Keynes’s influential book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919. The reader will also learn of Keynes’s extensive contributions to British and American economic policy, including ideas outlined in Keynes’s book, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936.
What are three things worth remembering?
John Maynard Keynes was an exceptionally hard-working and talented person whose contributions to economics continue to influence policy. Keynes’s ideas held less appeal during the oil crises and stagflation (simultaneously rising inflation and unemployment rates) of the 1970s and the Great Moderation (a period of reduced economic volatility in the United States between the mid-1980s and mid-2000s). However, Keynesian ideas were in vogue during the Great Recession (otherwise referred to as the Global Financial Crisis). As Robert Lucus, an American economist at the University of Chicago, said, “I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole”, meaning that Keynes’s ideas are more compelling during a recession.
At the heart of classical economics is the logic of choice under scarcity. In contrast, Keynesian economics is the logic of choice under uncertainty. One conclusion drawn by Skidelsky is that, due to uncertainty, expectations are not likely to be consistent with full-employment-level expectations. Without uncertainty, business investment would always equal savings, maintaining full employment; but because people are faced with uncertainty, investment can under or overshoot savings, which causes unemployment or high inflation. In short, macroeconomic disequilibrium is the norm in Keynesian economics rather than an exception to the norm, as can be taught in classical economics.
In a credit-money economy, a gold standard or pegged exchange rate limits the effectiveness of monetary policy to reduce a savings-investment gap, which avoids unemployment. The textbook case is the 1931 sterling devaluation. The unemployment rate was around 20 per cent of the insured British workforce, and the British trade balance had deteriorated. The situation should have led the Bank of England to reduce interest rates but, to maintain the gold standard, the Bank of England instead chose to increase interest rates. The result? Depressed effective demand in an economy that was already operating below full employment. The damage caused by market interest rates that were too high for domestic conditions and an overvalued currency could not persist in the face of mass unemployment, and the sterling was devalued in 1931. If the exchange rate had been floating, there would have been no need to attract capital inflows to support the sterling. Notably, the Bank of England could have used counter-cyclical monetary policy to address deficient effective demand if it wasn’t for the gold standard.
A final word
Readers of English non-fiction tend to read approximately 238 words per minute. So, one would expect to finish a 340,000-word book like JMK: 1883–1946 by committing slightly less than twenty-four hours to reading. However, reading the book over two weeks felt like guzzling wine labelled ‘contemplate’, given how much of the content is worthy of reflection and further exploration. For example, the sterling devaluation of 1931, the consequences of the treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression and the formulation of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — not to mention the social and aesthetic changes exemplified by the Bloomsbury Group. So, take on the book, but go slow and explore beyond to learn and enjoy more.
What are the book’s specifics?
Skidelsky’s John Maynard Keynes: 1883–1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman, hereafter, ‘JMK: 1883–1946’, is the abridged version of his award-winning three-volume biography. Although JMK: 1883–1946 is 40 per cent smaller than the three-volume version, the book, excluding introduction, references, dramatic personae and index, is still an 853-page, or around a 340,000-word, adventure. Not a light read by any stretch of the imagination.
Who might like the book?
JMK: 1883–1946 will appeal to people who appreciate exemplary scholarship and fine detail. Readers might also appreciate the economic and twentieth-century political and social history woven throughout the book. Although, if the political machinations of international relations frustrate, then sections of JMK: 1883–1946 may not be enjoyable. Furthermore, Keynes’s ideas discussed in the book require some understanding of the quantity theory of money, effective demand, the balance of payments, the gold standard, fiscal and monetary policy and different exchange rate regimes. Readers unfamiliar with these topics may need to read more widely than the book to appreciate the book thoroughly.
What ground does the book cover?
Skidelsky does not leave many stones unturned. He begins JMK: 1883–1946 with a brief genealogy and sketch of the lives of Keynes’s parents. These early sketches emphasise his father’s foray into political economy, his choice to take an administration position at Cambridge University and life at Cambridge as each affected Keynes’s life profoundly. Skidelsky then focuses on Keynes’s early years, emphasising his academic life at Eton College and then King’s College, Cambridge. Next, Keynes’s membership of the Bloomsbury Group and his time in the India Office are explored. Next, Skidelsky goes into detail about Keynes’s relationships and personal ethics, with conclusions drawn by Skidelsky from Keynes’s private letters. Skidelsky also weaves in a narrative of the initially surprising but harmonious marriage to the Russian ballet dancer Lydia Lopokov. Skidelsky then shifts gears, and the book’s focus turns to Keynes’s public life. For example, the reader learns of Keynes’s contributions to the war effort whilst working at the British Treasury and his anger at the treaty of Versailles that resulted in Keynes’s influential book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, 1919. The reader will also learn of Keynes’s extensive contributions to British and American economic policy, including ideas outlined in Keynes’s book, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, 1936.
What are three things worth remembering?
John Maynard Keynes was an exceptionally hard-working and talented person whose contributions to economics continue to influence policy. Keynes’s ideas held less appeal during the oil crises and stagflation (simultaneously rising inflation and unemployment rates) of the 1970s and the Great Moderation (a period of reduced economic volatility in the United States between the mid-1980s and mid-2000s). However, Keynesian ideas were in vogue during the Great Recession (otherwise referred to as the Global Financial Crisis). As Robert Lucus, an American economist at the University of Chicago, said, “I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole”, meaning that Keynes’s ideas are more compelling during a recession.
At the heart of classical economics is the logic of choice under scarcity. In contrast, Keynesian economics is the logic of choice under uncertainty. One conclusion drawn by Skidelsky is that, due to uncertainty, expectations are not likely to be consistent with full-employment-level expectations. Without uncertainty, business investment would always equal savings, maintaining full employment; but because people are faced with uncertainty, investment can under or overshoot savings, which causes unemployment or high inflation. In short, macroeconomic disequilibrium is the norm in Keynesian economics rather than an exception to the norm, as can be taught in classical economics.
In a credit-money economy, a gold standard or pegged exchange rate limits the effectiveness of monetary policy to reduce a savings-investment gap, which avoids unemployment. The textbook case is the 1931 sterling devaluation. The unemployment rate was around 20 per cent of the insured British workforce, and the British trade balance had deteriorated. The situation should have led the Bank of England to reduce interest rates but, to maintain the gold standard, the Bank of England instead chose to increase interest rates. The result? Depressed effective demand in an economy that was already operating below full employment. The damage caused by market interest rates that were too high for domestic conditions and an overvalued currency could not persist in the face of mass unemployment, and the sterling was devalued in 1931. If the exchange rate had been floating, there would have been no need to attract capital inflows to support the sterling. Notably, the Bank of England could have used counter-cyclical monetary policy to address deficient effective demand if it wasn’t for the gold standard.
A final word
Readers of English non-fiction tend to read approximately 238 words per minute. So, one would expect to finish a 340,000-word book like JMK: 1883–1946 by committing slightly less than twenty-four hours to reading. However, reading the book over two weeks felt like guzzling wine labelled ‘contemplate’, given how much of the content is worthy of reflection and further exploration. For example, the sterling devaluation of 1931, the consequences of the treaty of Versailles, the Great Depression and the formulation of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank — not to mention the social and aesthetic changes exemplified by the Bloomsbury Group. So, take on the book, but go slow and explore beyond to learn and enjoy more.
June 3, 2022
A monumental read. John Maynard Keynes was the most consequent British person of the 20th Century apart from Winston Churchill. His contribution to the field of economics was immense. There was much more about him though than the study & theorizing of economics. He was a practitioner both as an investor & statesmen. He was also as well a philosopher whose philosophic view underpinned his view of economics. He was not a politician he was instead the sort of person brought in by successive governments to help solve economic problems both national & international. His period of activity at the highest level spanned the two world wars & the period in between. Keynes was also a member of the bohemian Bloomsbury Group of writers & painters. His private life was almost as interesting as his public one. He married a Russian ballerina. He did all this & much more dying at the youngish age of sixty two. This edition is a one volume version of Robert Skidelsky's three volume biography. It still nevertheless runs to over 850 pages so it is very thorough requiring a lot of close reading especially of those parts concerning economics.
May 30, 2024
3.5 stars.
Erudite, comprehensive biography of a most interesting man during an interesting time. Keynes' passion for art and attractive mileu - coming of age in early 20th Century Cambridge, being the financial hub of London's artists at the time - add much needed colour to the dry economics of interest rates and terms of trade.
The economics was still engaging and, in particular, the situation of Keynesian economics in relation to predecessors like Marshall and Pigou. This is a welcome contrast to the traditional economics university teaching, which is typically presented ahistorically and without personality flavours.
However, the last section on the Bretton Woods Agreement - many pages devoted to particular meetings and documents - missed the forest for the trees and will leave readers glad they finished. I'll settle on a 4 star review as this seems like a reference biography, where the audience will prefer more detail to less. However, if you want a more readable and engaging biography of Keynes, I'd recommend Zachary D. Carters 'The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes'.
Erudite, comprehensive biography of a most interesting man during an interesting time. Keynes' passion for art and attractive mileu - coming of age in early 20th Century Cambridge, being the financial hub of London's artists at the time - add much needed colour to the dry economics of interest rates and terms of trade.
The economics was still engaging and, in particular, the situation of Keynesian economics in relation to predecessors like Marshall and Pigou. This is a welcome contrast to the traditional economics university teaching, which is typically presented ahistorically and without personality flavours.
However, the last section on the Bretton Woods Agreement - many pages devoted to particular meetings and documents - missed the forest for the trees and will leave readers glad they finished. I'll settle on a 4 star review as this seems like a reference biography, where the audience will prefer more detail to less. However, if you want a more readable and engaging biography of Keynes, I'd recommend Zachary D. Carters 'The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes'.
October 14, 2024
Reading this was exhausting, but I have finally completed the biography. Unless you are very keen to know everything about Keynes, I suggest that you read my 1500 word *essence" of this 852-page book.
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June 27, 2018
Much more than a biography.
December 23, 2019
I LIKE THIS BOOK.
January 19, 2021
record too many things in a biography, read it too boring and dull!
March 13, 2020
Interesting historical book!!!
March 14, 2017
Verbose
March 31, 2014
I'm an economist, and a big fan of Keynesian ideas in general - at least as they have been taught to me at university. It struck me a few years back that I'd never been given an education on the man himself. I knew next to nothing about Keynes, only the broad functionings of his economics.
I borrowed this from a friend, excited to finally learn about Keynes the man. That aspect of the book is certainly interesting (and he's not what I expected - he's quite a character, rather than a dry numbers guy as many may believe). As you'd expect, there is a lot in here about his youth, upbringing, relationships, career, and so on.
But, as others have mentioned, it gets pretty dry at times. Skidelsky does not hold back when describing and discussing Keynes' philosophical and economic musings and debates. Nor does he hesitate to go into great detail on the development and progression of his theory and economic worldview as it grows, changes, and ultimately settles over the course of his life. But even for me, as an economist, there was far too much detail for this to be a casual read.
This is probably my mistake - this book was meant as a definitive guide to the life and times of Keynes. It is an abridged version of a three volume edition, surely encyclopaedic in it's ambition (I never read it). This is not an everyman's guide to the life of Keynes - it is a more readable (but by no means leisurely) adaptation. And Skidelsky should be commended for this work. But it is not an easy or leisurely read, and I found myself skipping large chunks to get to the more interesting parts.
While I understand Skidelsky's decision to write it in this way, my one criticism is that he doesn't appear to make an attempt to explain the economic concepts to non-specialists. I found this disappointing, even un-Keynesian in a way, as Keynes was known for writing in a lucid and clear style which anyone could pick up. This volume is not written in such a style. As a result, I found it difficult to follow much of the more technical discussion without slowing down and trying to reason through it. As I read this book mostly on my morning commute, I didn't really have the inclination to do so.
Is this a masterful biography of one of the most important men of the last century? Yes. Is it a definitive work that should surely be considered a reference to those interested in Keynes? Yes. Is it a lucid and easily accessible book that opens Keynes up to those who are not familiar with his life and his works? Not really, and it is for this reason I gave it a 3 rather than a 4. Obviously you can't be all of those things, but personally I was looking for the latter rather than the former.
I borrowed this from a friend, excited to finally learn about Keynes the man. That aspect of the book is certainly interesting (and he's not what I expected - he's quite a character, rather than a dry numbers guy as many may believe). As you'd expect, there is a lot in here about his youth, upbringing, relationships, career, and so on.
But, as others have mentioned, it gets pretty dry at times. Skidelsky does not hold back when describing and discussing Keynes' philosophical and economic musings and debates. Nor does he hesitate to go into great detail on the development and progression of his theory and economic worldview as it grows, changes, and ultimately settles over the course of his life. But even for me, as an economist, there was far too much detail for this to be a casual read.
This is probably my mistake - this book was meant as a definitive guide to the life and times of Keynes. It is an abridged version of a three volume edition, surely encyclopaedic in it's ambition (I never read it). This is not an everyman's guide to the life of Keynes - it is a more readable (but by no means leisurely) adaptation. And Skidelsky should be commended for this work. But it is not an easy or leisurely read, and I found myself skipping large chunks to get to the more interesting parts.
While I understand Skidelsky's decision to write it in this way, my one criticism is that he doesn't appear to make an attempt to explain the economic concepts to non-specialists. I found this disappointing, even un-Keynesian in a way, as Keynes was known for writing in a lucid and clear style which anyone could pick up. This volume is not written in such a style. As a result, I found it difficult to follow much of the more technical discussion without slowing down and trying to reason through it. As I read this book mostly on my morning commute, I didn't really have the inclination to do so.
Is this a masterful biography of one of the most important men of the last century? Yes. Is it a definitive work that should surely be considered a reference to those interested in Keynes? Yes. Is it a lucid and easily accessible book that opens Keynes up to those who are not familiar with his life and his works? Not really, and it is for this reason I gave it a 3 rather than a 4. Obviously you can't be all of those things, but personally I was looking for the latter rather than the former.
to-buy
May 6, 2018Mentioned by James Atlas in The Shadow in the Garden: a Biographers tale
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