Books

First edition, first impression, of Keynes's last major text, "the chief of his major theoretical works" (ODNB). The General Theory was written in the aftermath of the Great Depression, when the old economic order was widely seen to have failed. Keynes argued that government must intervene in the economy, directing wages, investment, and demand, in order to achieve full employment beyond the boom and bust cycle. In so doing, a middle way was found between the laissez-faire policy of classical political economy and the complete state control of socialist economic theory. Keynes's system of controlled capitalism was embraced by the political left and right across Western Europe and the United States and so came to define much of the 20th century. Prior to the counterattack of the monetarist and neo-liberal schools, Keynes's theories became the virtually undisputed economic orthodoxy of the decades following the Second World War. Moggridge A10.1; Printing and the Mind of Man 423. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, covers ruled in blind. Tables in the text. Light bumping and rubbing, faint toning to spine, slight browning and foxing to endpapers, edges, and contents: a very good copy.

John Maynard Keynes' groundbreaking work established the framework for contemporary macroeconomic theory. It analyses the causes of fluctuating employment levels and proposes interventions to stabilize the economy.