Biography

(g l´br th) (KEY) , 1908–, American economist and public official, b. Ont., Canada, grad. Univ. of Toronto (B.S., 1931), Univ. of California (M.S., 1933; Ph.D., 1934). After teaching economics at Harvard (1934–39) and Princeton (1939–40), he entered government service, working (1941–43) in the Office of Price Administration. He was an editor of Fortune magazine in 1943–48, also serving on the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (1945) and in other governmental advisory posts, then returned (1949) to Harvard. An adviser to President John F. Kennedy, he served (1961–63) as U.S. ambassador to India. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 1963 and continued his political activities, serving (1967–69) as chairman of Americans for Democratic Action. A Keynesian economist, Galbraith has advocated government spending to fight unemployment and using more of the nation’s wealth for public services, less for private consumption. His influential works include American Capitalism (1952), The Great Crash, 1929 (1955), The Affluent Society (1958, rev. ed. 1985), The Liberal Hour (1960), The New Industrial State (2d rev. ed. 1971), Economics and the Public Purpose (1973), and The Good Society: The Humane Agenda (1997).
See his memoir, A Life in Our Times (1981), and his history, Name-Dropping: From FDR On (1999); A. D. Williams, ed., The Essential Galbraith (2001); biography by R. Parker (2005); studies by C. H. Hession (1972) and M. E. Sharpe (1973).

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