John Maynard Keynes [1946]

Abstract

Lord keynes, who died at the age of sixty-two on April 21, 1946, was unquestionably the most famous and controversial of contemporary economists. Moreover, like the great figures of the classical school—Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill¹ —he was no narrow specialist working in the seclusion of an academic ivory tower. Both as critic and as participant, he played a very important and certainly a unique role in the public life of Britain in the period of the two world wars; as a patron of the arts, he was a power in the cultural life of his country; as head of a great insurance company and as Bursar of King’s College, Cambridge, he proved that the economic theorist can be a highly successful businessman; while his noneconomic writings range from the standard (literary as opposed to mathematical) Treatise on Probability to the incisive Essays in Biography. Keynes was, in short, one of the most brilliant and versatile geniuses of our time; and one can be sure that his place in history—not only doctrinal economic history—will be a subject of discussion and controversy for an indefinite period to come. It would be presumptuous at this early date to attempt anything in the way of definitive judgments, and in writing this brief communication I am far from entertaining any such intentions.