Books

First edition, first impression, in the scarce jacket, of Keynes's last major text and chief theoretical work. 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. A middle way was thus 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 neoliberal schools, Keynes's theories became the virtually undisputed economic orthodoxy of the decades following the Second World War. Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, rules continuing to covers in blind. With dust jacket. Tables in the text. Cloth and contents bright, minimal rubbing to extremities, a touch of ghosting to rear free endpaper; light rubbing, creasing, and chipping to clipped jacket, spine panel with minor toning and soiling, and a short closed tear at head: a near-fine copy in a very good jacket indeed. Moggridge A10.1; Printing and the Mind of Man 423.

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.