The Affluent Society | Literary Criticism & Book Review

The Affluent Society Critical Overview

"Galbraith may well be the most famous economist of the last half century," observes James Ronald Stanfield, in John Kenneth Galbraith (1996). Galbraith's celebrity status with the popular reading public may be indicated by his appearance in a February 16, 1968, Time magazine cover story, entitled "The Great Mogul." David Reisman, in Galbraith and Market Capitalism (1980), sums up Galbraith's widespread influence in stating that he has "succeeded . . . in stimulating more popular discussion of economic, social and political questions than has any other intellectual of his generation." Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in a foreword to Perspectives on Galbraith (1978), by Frederick J. Pratson, exemplifies the level and degree of respect and influence Galbraith has achieved in the realm of public policymakers: "As economist, ambassador, philosopher, professor, writer, skier, and public scold, he has had a continuing and extremely influential impact on an entire generation of...
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