SOURCE: "John Maynard Keynes: Scientist or Politician?" in Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 82, No. 1, January-February, 1974, pp. 99-111.

In the following excerpt, Johnson discusses the nature of Keynes's involvement in British political life and economic policy. Johnson's essay was originally read as a paper on September 5, 1972, at the annual meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

John Maynard Keynes—scientist or politician? The reader of the popular press of a generation ago would have had no doubt of the answer. Keynes, a swinging weather vane of a man, was the most unscientific of individuals—a cartoonist's dream. He was Keynes the india-rubber man: the Daily News and Chronicle of March 16, 1931, carried an article headed "Economic Acrobatics of Mr. Keynes" and illustrated it by a sketch of "A Remarkable Performance. Mr. John Maynard Keynes as the 'boneless man' turns his back on himself and swallows a draught...