John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) is perhaps the foremost economic thinker of the twentieth century. On economic theory, he ranks with Adam Smith and Karl Marx; and his impact on how economics was practiced, from the Great Depression to the 1970s, was unmatched.

The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money was first published in 1936. But its ideas had been forming for decades - as a student at Cambridge, Keynes had written to a friend of his love for 'Free Trade and free thought'. Keynes's limpid style, concise prose, and vivid descriptions have helped to keep his ideas alive - as have the novelty and clarity, at times even the ambiguity, of his macroeconomic vision. He was troubled, above all, by high unemployment rates and large disparities in wealth and income. Only by curbing both, he thought, could individualism, 'the most powerful instrument to better the future', be safeguarded. The twenty-first century may yet prove him right.

In The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), Keynes elegantly and acutely exposes the folly of imposing austerity on a defeated and struggling nation.

Terrible slog. Science of economy is verging on astrology - a lot of theories but no testable predictions. So many equations yet not a single predictive one. I don't know what's worse, machine learning with its predictive power but no explanation or elaborate explanations with no predictive power. ( )

While I never agreed with a number of tenants in what was a groundbreaking work in economics, I've gradually come to appreciate much of it much more over time. Certainly recommended for any student of economics, policy, business, theory, etc. ( )

Perhaps the most classic text on Economic theory of all time, certainly Keynes most important work. A must have on one's science library. ( )

I liked this book quite a bit, but it is not without flaws. While the book is dense and rather boring to read, I can forgive this since Keynes was writing for his fellow economists. The jargon and symbols that are used obfuscate the idea he is trying to get across especially if you merely read for fun and no other purpose. The other reason I picked up this book is that of its reputation. There are few people that can say they flipped an entire subject of inquiry on its head.

Going into this book, I knew a bit of the history involved in it and the era that produced it. This book did not really bring any of those times into light, especially since he uses a British Currency. I have no point by which I can compare, though I suppose that if I searched hard enough for old prices I could compare the currencies. Now that I'm typing out the idea though, it just seems like it would be way too much work. ( )