Works by
John Kenneth Galbraith
(Writer)
[October 15, 1908 - April 29, 2006]

As Editor

Biography

• Letters to Kennedy (1998), James Goodman, ed.
  A unique document in the history of the Kennedy years, these letters give us a firsthand look at the working relationship between a president and one of his close advisers, John Kenneth Galbraith. In an early letter, Galbraith mentions his "ambition to be the most reticent adviser in modern political history." But as a respected intellectual and author of the celebrated The Affluent Society, he was not to be positioned so lightly, and his letters are replete with valuable advice about economics, public policy, and the federal bureaucracy. As the United States' ambassador to India from 1961 to 1963, Galbraith made use of his position to counsel the President on foreign policy, especially as it bore on the Asian subcontinent and, ultimately, Vietnam.
  
  Written with verve and wit, his letters were relished by a president who had little patience for foolish ideas or bad prose. They stand out today as a vibrant chronicle of some of the most subtle and critical moments in the days of the Kennedy administration--and a fascinating record of the counsel that Galbraith offered President Kennedy. Ranging from a pithy commentary on Kennedy's speech accepting the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination (and inaugurating the "New Frontier") to reflections on critical matters of state such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of Communism in Indochina, Letters to Kennedy presents a rare, intimate picture of the lives and minds of a political intellectual and an intellectual politician during a particularly bright moment in American history.

• A Life in Our Times: Memoirs (1981)

• John Kenneth Galbraith (1972)

Fiction

• A Tenured Professor (1990)
  When America's most distinguished economist turned his observant eye and celebrated brilliance to fiction, the result was hailed by the New York Times as "his wisest and wittiest" novel yet. A respected Harvard professor creates an economic forecasting model identifying speculative folly, enabling him of society's hidden agendas that is at once a morality tale and a comic delight.

• The Triumph (1968)
  Novel about rebellion in an otherwise undistinguished and sleepy Latin American republic.

Non-fiction

• Interviews With John Kenneth Galbraith (2004), James Ronald Stanfield, ed.
  This collection of interviews documents the long career of an influential economist and political philosopher who has spent much of his professional life in the public eye. Many of the interviews are occasioned by publication of his books and contain their key themes such as the importance of Keynes, the need to include power in economic thinking, and the neglected priorities of aesthetics, poverty, and the environment in affluent America. The interviews also indicate Galbraith's wide-ranging public service and his frequent hobnobbing with the political and intellectual elite. Through the collection, which spans over four decades, Galbraith's erudition, wit, and impassioned liberalism shine through, making this volume an essential companion to his works.

• The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth For Our Time (2004)
  John Kenneth Galbraith has long been at the center of American economics, in key positions of responsibility during the New Deal, World War II, and since, guiding policy and debate. His trenchant new book distills this lifetime of experience in the public and private sectors; it is a scathing critique of matters as they stand today. Sounding the alarm about the increasing gap between reality and "conventional wisdom" -- a phrase he coined -- Galbraith tells, along with much else, how we have reached a point where the private sector has unprecedented control over the public sector. We have given ourselves over to self-serving belief and "contrived nonsense" or, more simply, fraud. This has come at the expense of the economy, effective government, and the business world. Particularly noted is the central power of the corporation and the shift in authority from shareholders and board members to management. In an intense exercise of fraud, the pretense of shareholder power is still maintained, even with the immediate participants. In fact, because of the scale and complexity of the modern corporation, decisive power must go to management. From management and its own inevitable self-interest, power extends deeply into government -- the so-called public sector. This is particularly and dangerously the case in such matters as military policy, the environment, and, needless to say, taxation. Nevertheless, there remains the firm reference to the public sector. How can fraud be innocent? In his inimitable style, Galbraith offers the answer. His taut, wry, and severe comment is essential reading for everyone who cares about America's future. This book is especially relevant in an election year, but it deeply concerns the much longer future.

• What Jesus Did (2003) by Denise Abrahall, and Jhn Kenneth Galbraith

• The Essential Galbraith (2001)
  The Essential Galbraith includes key selections from the most important works of John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the most distinguished writers of our time - from The Affluent Society, the groundbreaking book in which he conined the tern "conventional wisdom," to The Great Crash, an unsurpassed account of the events that triggered America's worst economic crisis. Galbraith's new introductions place the works in their historical moment and make clear their enduring relevance for the new century. The Essential Galbraith will delight old admirers and introduce one of our most beloved writers to a new generation of readers. It is also an indispensable resource for scholars and students of economics, history, and politics, offering unparalleled access to the seminal writings of an extraordinary thinker.

• Name-Dropping: From FDR On (1999)
  Drawing on a lifetime of access to many of the greatest public figures, Galbraith creates a rich and uniquely personal history of the century - a history he helped to shape. We are invited to hear FDR on the Great Depression and World War II, Albert Speer, the Third Reich's architect and armaments minister, on the boorishness and incompetence of the Nazi leadership; John F. Kennedy, from youth to the presidency; acqueline Kennedy's shrewd judgments of the White House inner circle. In this clear-eyed, unsparing, and amusing look back at the world and the people he has known, Galbraith tells what these leaders did - how they looked to him then and how they look to him now - with unforgettable reminiscences and a rich infusion of engaging anecdotes.

• The Unfinished Business of Our Century (1999)

• The Good Society: The Humane Agenda (1996)
  This compact, tightly argued, and eloquent book is the quintessential John Kenneth Galbraith, the manifesto of the "abiding liberal." In defining the characteristics of a good society and creating the blueprint for a workable

• A Journey Through Economic Time (1994)
  A renowned economist presents an accessible, far-reaching history of the century's economics from World War I and the Russian Revolution, through the Depression and Keynesian theory, to colonialism's collapse and the rise of the Third World.

• The World Economy Since the Wars (1994)

• The Culture of Contentment (1992)

• A Short History of Financial Euphoria (1990)
  With all the financial know-how and experience of the wizards on Wall Street and elsewhere, how is it that the market still goes boom and bust? How can people be so willing to get caught up in the mania of speculation when history tells us that a collapse is almost sure to follow? In this primer, the renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith reviews the major speculative episodes of the last three centuries - from the 17th century tulip craze to the calamitous junk-bond follies of the 1980s. His insights provide important lessons on speculative economics, and demonstrate conclusively that money and intelligence are not necessarily linked.

• Capitalism and Socialism: The Dynamics of Change  (lecture) (1989)

• Unconventional Wisdom (1989), John Kenneth Galbraith Richard Edwards, Samuel Bowles, William G. Shepherd, eds.

• The Cuomo Commission Report (1988)

• A History of Economics: The Past As the Present (1987)

• Economics in Perspective: A Critical History (1987)

• A View from the Stands: Of People, Politics, Military Power, and the Arts (1986)

• The Anatomy of Power (1983)

• Essays From the Poor to the Rich (1983)

• The Galbraith Reader (1981)

• Annals of an Abiding Liberal (1980)

• The Nature of Mass Poverty (1979)
  The Galbraith incisiveness, clarity, and wit are here brought to bear on the central aspects of the most important economic and social problems of our time. The Nature of Mass Poverty proceeds from the author's conviction that most explanations of conditions in poor countries do not explain. They reflect, instead, the experience of the rich countries. Or they create cause out of cure. Capital and technical expertise being available from the rich countries, shortage of these becomes the cause of poverty in the poor.

• Almost Everyone's Guide to Economics (1978) with Nicole Salinger

• The Age of Uncertainty (1977)

• Inflation and Unemployment: Or the Alternative (1976)

• Money: Whence It Came (Where It Went) (1975)

• Socialism in Rich Countries and Poor (1975)

• The Economic Effects of the Federal Public Works Expenditures (1933 - 1938) (1975) with G. Johnson
  Prepared by J. K. Galbraith, assisted by G. G. Johnson, Jr. for the Public Works Committee

• A China Passage (1973)

• Economics and The Public Purpose (1973)

• The American Left and Some British Comparisons  (1971)

• Economics Peace and Laughter (1971)

• Ambassador's Journal: A Personal Account of the Kennedy Years (1969) with Samuel H. Bryant, Illustrator

• How to Control the Military (1969)

• Indan Painting; the Scene, Themes and Legends (1868) by Mohinder Singh Randhawa and John Kenneth Galbraith

• A Beginner's Guide to American Studies: An Address Given on the Occasion of the Official Opening of the Institute of United States Studies University of London on May 12, 1967 (1967)

• How to Get Out of Vietnam: A Workable Solution the the Worst Problem of Our Time (1967)

• The New Industrial State (1967)
  With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer "need" where none previously existed. Multinational corporations are the continuation of this power system on an international level. The goal of these companies is not the betterment of society, but immortality through an uninterrupted stream of earnings.

• Vietnam, the Moderate Solution (1967)

• Economic Development (1964)

• Made to Last (1964)

• The Liberal Hour (1964)

• The Scotch (1963)
  In 1908, in Dunwich Township, a patch of rural southern Ontario that was more Scottish than much of Scotland, the renowned economist and public servant John Kenneth Galbraith was born. In 1963, Galbraith wrote The Scotch, a memoir of the tight (in every sense) community in which he was raised.
  
  Galbraith tells how the men were distinguished by the amount of land they’d accumulated, how hard they worked, how hard they drank, but mainly by how frugal they were. It was said that Codfish John McKillop was so economical that when he died and was being lowered into his grave, he lifted the cover of his coffin and handed out his clothes. Educated himself first at the one-room Willey School, where team sports were held to be “bad for a youngster,” and later at Dutton High School under the aegis of an incompetent teacher who believed in learning through terror, Galbraith raced through the early grades and left for the Ontario Agricultural College, en route, eventually, to Harvard. He may have left the community, but, it’s clear from this affectionate, if pointed, portrait, it never left him.

• Economic Development in Perspective (1962)

• Journey to Poland and Yugoslavia (1958)

• The Affluent Society (1958)
  John Kenneth Galbraith's classic on the "economics of abundance" has forever enriched the language with the phrases "affluent society" and "conventional wisdom." With his customary clarity, eloquence, and humor, Galbraith cuts to the heart of what economic security means (and doesn't mean) in today's world - and lays bare the hazards of individual and societal complacency about economic inequality.

• American Capitalism, the Concept of Countervailing Power (1956)

• Inequality in Agriculture: Problem and Program (1956)

• Economics and the Art of Controversy (1955)

• The Great Crash 1929 (1954)
  Of Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financial collapse, the Atlantic Monthly said:"Economic writings are seldom notable for their entertainment value, but this book is. Galbraith's prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal of sardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation's oracles and the wondrous antics of the financial community." Now, with the stock market riding historic highs, the celebrated economist returns with new insights on the legacy of our past and the consequences of blind optimism and power plays within the financial community.

• A Theory of Price Control: The Classic Account (1952)

• Beyond the Marshall Plan (1949(
  Planning pamphlets

• The Effects of Strategic Bombing on the German War Economy (1945)
  This important examination of the the economic impact on the German economy resulting from the bombing attacks by Allied forces. The book was written by John Kenneth Galbraith and several other bright young economists like Paul Baran, etc.

• Modern Competition and Business Policy (1938) with H. S. Dennison

Writing as Mark Eperany

• McLandress Dimension (1963)

See also:

• John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics (2006) by Richard Parker

• John Kenneth Galbraith: The Economist as Political Theorist (2006) by Conrad P. Waligorski

• Economist With a Public Purpose: Essays in Honour of John Kenneth Galbraith (2001) by Michael Keaney

• Introduction to Political Economy: Marx, Veblen, Galbraith, Keynes, and the Politiical Economy View (2002) by Charles Sackrey, Geoffrey Schneider, and Janet Knoedler

• Between Friends: Perspectives on John Kenneth Galbraith (1999) by Helen Sasson

• Speaking of Galbraith: A Personal Portrait (1991) by Peggy Lamson

• Galbraithian Vision (1983) by C.Lynn Munro

• Perspectives on Galbraith: Conversations and Opinions (1978) by Frederick John Pratson

• The Economics of John Kenneth Galbraith (1977) by F.S. MacFadzean

• John Kenneth Galbraith (1975) by John S. Gambs

• Galbraith's Garbled Economics (1974)  by Roland Willey Bartlett