Books

London: Macmillan and Co., Limited,, 1936. One of the most influential books of the 20th century First edition, first impression, 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 neo-liberal schools, Keynes's theories became the virtually undisputed economic orthodoxy of the decades following the Second…

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.