Keynes: A Critical Life

(Hardback)

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Only a person of Keynes's unique character could have achieved what he did. After teaching neoclassical economics for two decades, he developed an extraordinary theoryextraordinary in that it built upon the theoretical complex he intended to overthrow and extraordinary in that it provided the best guidance for defeating the Depression of the 1930s and managing an economy thereafter. This biography shows how Keynes's personality left its stamp on his ideas, the connections between his all-too-human quirks and his theorizing, between his dominating personality and his success as a policymaker. Although sympathetic to the man, his aims, and his accomplishments, this is the first critical biography of John Maynard Keynes. Based on the mass of material Keynes left behind, including hundreds of letters, the book shows how he thought, rationalized, and acted, as well as the connections between the fallible human and the abstract theory. It shows his transformation from an active homosexual to a contented married manthe relationship giving him a personal and social stability that was important to his achievement. It shows his superb confidence that he was righteven when he completely reversed his previous positionand his unshakable resolution to see his ideas carried out. This is A Critical Lifecritical because Keynes's life had a critical impact, and because the book takes a critical look at that life.

Reviews

"It is with grace, wit, and deepest insight that David Felix negotiates the twists and turns of the interactive life and thought of a powerful, perverse personality and eminently fallible genius. Keynes left his indelible imprint on our age, and now David Felix has left his indelible imprint on Keynes."-Rudolph Binion Leff Professor of History Brandeis University
"What David Felix's readable study brings to his subject is a psychoanalytic perspective which integrates the child and the man, the dilettante and the economist, the homosexual and the happy husband, and provides a persuasive portrait."-Peter Gay Sterling Professor of History Emeritus Yale University
.,."Felix is at liberty to concentrate on the private contradictions of the man in just 300 pages. For the non-specialist, there is a good deal to be said for this approach - if only it were written with a lighter pen."-The Times Literary Supplement
...Felix is at liberty to concentrate on the private contradictions of the man in just 300 pages. For the non-specialist, there is a good deal to be said for this approach - if only it were written with a lighter pen.-The Times Literary Supplement
Felix opens a new door for the observation of Keynes without the perversion of the bastard Keynesians denounced by Joan Robinson; without the prejudice of the neo-Keynesians, who, according to Hyman P. Minsky, ended up thinking that in Keyne's elaboration "what is good is not new"; and without the benevolence of those who write biographies of flawless and lofty beings. In the end, Felix offers his reading of the double life (both public and private) of a human being whose importance is still being analyzed in the light of his undeniable greatness, which was determined by his perennial qualities and occasional failures.-Review of Radical Political Economics
..."Felix is at liberty to concentrate on the private contradictions of the man in just 300 pages. For the non-specialist, there is a good deal to be said for this approach - if only it were written with a lighter pen."-The Times Literary Supplement
"Felix opens a new door for the observation of Keynes without the perversion of the bastard Keynesians denounced by Joan Robinson; without the prejudice of the neo-Keynesians, who, according to Hyman P. Minsky, ended up thinking that in Keyne's elaboration "what is good is not new"; and without the benevolence of those who write biographies of flawless and lofty beings. In the end, Felix offers his reading of the double life (both public and private) of a human being whose importance is still being analyzed in the light of his undeniable greatness, which was determined by his perennial qualities and occasional failures."-Review of Radical Political Economics

Author Bio

DAVID FELIX is Professor Emeritus of History at the City University of New York. He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Biography of an Idea: John Maynard Keynes and THE GENERAL THEORY OF EMPLOYMENT, INTEREST, AND MONEY (1995).