The General Theory [1936]

Abstract

The object of this article is to provide as simple as possible an account of the most important line of argument that runs through J. M. Keynes’ book The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, so that, except perhaps in some details of presentation, it contains nothing original. I have endeavored, where possible, to follow the traditional use of language more closely than Keynes does, as I have found that this renders the argument both more intelligible and more acceptable to those who are not familiar with the oral tradition of Cambridge. While necessarily simplifying the argument considerably in order to be able to encompass it in an article of appropriate length, I do not think I have left out anything fundamental. In discovering what are the points in the argument or its presentation at which students are liable to jib, I have learned much from innumerable discussions with economists and students in London, Cambridge, and Geneva, and of these certainly the most helpful was Dr. Gottfried Haberler, who has been working towards similar results along a quite different route. I must add that I would certainly not have been able to attempt this task were it not for the time I spent in Cambridge in 1934–5 while Leon Fellow of the University of London.