Harrod on Keynes

Abstract

The publication, less than five years after the death of its distinguished subject, of Mr Harrod’s Life of Lord Keynes is something of a literary event. Lord Keynes was so many-sided a figure, the issues with which he was concerned were so controversial, that it would be a miracle if any biography, written at this date, should be regarded as immune from criticism; and the somewhat personal nature of Mr Harrod’s narrative, together with the vigour with which he argues disputed questions, make it likely that what he has written will not be so regarded. Nevertheless, he has placed both us and the future very greatly in his debt. He has gathered together a vast body of information, indispensable for judgement on Lord Keynes’s achievement, but likely to have disappeared had the writing of a biography been deferred; and he has made of it a book which, whether it commands agreement or not, it is exceedingly difficult to stop reading. My own judgement is that it will long continue to be read.

A review of The Life of John Maynard Keynes, by R. F. Harrod (London: Macmillan, 1951); reprinted from The Times, 26 Jan. 1951. Reproduced by courtesy of the Times Publishing Co. Ltd.