John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946 v.3: Fighting for Britain, 1937-1946 Vol 3 (Keynesian studies) Book

Robert Skidelsky completes his monumental three-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes with Fighting for Britain: 1937-1946. "We threw good housekeeping to the winds. But we saved ourselves and helped save the world". So Keynes is supposed to have described how the battling British won the economic war against the Axis powers. This volume of Lord Skidelsky's biography describes in full how the greatest economic mind of the 20th century volunteered his services during the Second World War. Having been rebuffed by the Treasury for most of the 1930s, Keynes' principal idea--using the Budget as a tool to regulate investment and consumer demand--came of age during the war years. Historians have often seen this sea-change in British economic policy as a case of needs must, but Skidelsky brings out the pivotal role Keynes himself played in winning over the politicians (especially the Labour Party) and the men in grey suits in Whitehall (some of whom turned out to be old chums from Cambridge days--which helped). But Skidelsky also provides accessible chapter and verse on Keynes' negotiations with the Americans over Lend-Lease in 1941-2, and over the contraction of the so-called "sterling area" of the British imperial economy at the end of the war. Keynes liked to think that ideas converted politicians, but the evidence here suggests blood, sweat and tears, all of which no doubt played a part in Keynes' premature demise. We also get vivid accounts of Keynes the don and the man of letters: sorting out college finances, advising on theatre, opera and ballet, dabbling in the history of political economy. A fittingly comprehensive account of the final years of a multi-talented man. --Miles TaylorRead More