In the following excerpt, which is a translation of chapter five from his study L'oeuvre de John Maynard Keynes, Lambert provides a chronological study of Keynes's writings, portraying the economist as the founder of a "new liberalism" that sought to reconcile the individualistic spirit of capitalism with the need for government intervention to ensure full employment.

INTRODUCTION Economics in the last fifty years has been mainly Keynesian economics, inspired by Keynes' General Theory. Keynes challenged classical theory, the then prevailing orthodoxy in economics. Classical theory concluded that the economy tends automatically to a position of full employment if the price mechanism is free to operate in all markets. Keynes claimed to have broken away from this orthodoxy by showing that it is possible for involuntary unemployment to occur without any auto...

In the following excerpt, Steindl judges the contemporary relevance of Keynes's ideas. Basing his arguments on a discussion of several key topics in the criticism on Keynes, he outlines the main points of Keynes's economic theory, illustrates how the unorthodox content of the General Theory developed out of Keynes's active involvement in the formulation of economic policy during the 1920s and 1930s, identifies the focal points in the critical attacks on the General Theory, discusses th...

In the following excerpt, Hishiyama maintains that A Treatise on Probability had a direct bearing on the General Theory, particularly with regard to the two essential components of Keynes's principle of aggregate demand, investment and consumption, both of which, according to Keynes, contain an element of uncertainty that is not mathematically calculable.

In the following excerpt, Smithies surveys Keynes's career, commenting on the relationship between his economic theories and his philosophical beliefs, his views on domestic and international economic policy, his method of argument, the success of his policy proposals, and the political consequences of his theories.

In the following excerpt, Gruchy examines Keynes's economic thought at its various levels of analysis—from his theory of output and employment, to his theory of the capitalist order, to his set of proposals for remedying the capitalist system as it was then operating in England—illustrating how his views on the nature of economic science adhered to and diverged from the orthodox position of the Cambridge school.

In the following excerpt, Kahn examines Keynes's changing attitudes towards the quantity theory of money, as revealed in A Tract on Monetary Reform, A Treatise on Money, and the General Theory. The critic also discusses Keynes's views on the behavior of money wages and the causes of inflation.

In the following excerpt on A Treatise on Money, Felix discusses the genesis of the work the weaknesses in its argument, and its contemporary critical reception.

In the following excerpt, Moggridge describes the general character of Keynes's thought, his method of approaching economic problems, and his views on the making of public policy.

In the following excerpt, Davis discusses Keynes's understanding of economic method in terms of his philosophical beliefs, focusing on his conception of economics as a moral science and his emphasis on the role of individual value judgments in the construction of economic models. J. M. Keynes's theoretical understanding of economic method is one of the less well understood dimensions of his thought, both because Keynes's thinking, unlike that of most economists, was motivated by seriou...

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.

In the following excerpt, Skidelsky discusses Keynes's efforts to reconcile his private values with his public duties, focusing on the moral underpinnings of his economic theories. The first volume of Skidelsky's biography was published in 1983 and the second volume originally came out in 1992.

In the following excerpt, Blaug attempts to explain the phenomenal success of the General Theory and the unprecedented rapidity with which Keynes's theories were adopted by professional economists.

In the following essay, which was first published in 1971, Galbraith explains how the ideas contained in the General Theory were disseminated and eventually adopted in the United States.

In the following essay, Johnson examines the relationship between Keynes's plans for the International Monetary Fund system, established after World War II, and his early economic work specifically, his thoughts on the Indian currency problem and his views on international monetary relationships directly after World War I.