Speaking of Galbraith: A Personal Portrait - Hardcover

Lamson, Peggy

9780899199139: Speaking of Galbraith: A Personal Portrait

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0899199135 ISBN 13: 9780899199139

Publisher: Ticknor & Fields, 1991

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A long-time friend presents a candid portrait of the celebrated economist

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From Kirkus Reviews:

Brief and tame biography of the colorful and renowned economist and cultural critic, by Lamson (In the Vanguard: Six American Women in Public Life, etc.). Lamson's ``Personal Portrait'' makes a snack from a feast and never gets really personal. As a leading figure of the liberal-left community that came to maturity in the Depression, and, through FDR, to power, Galbraith deserves serious appraisal. He does not get it here. Lamson faithfully chronicles the legendary climb from poverty's edge in a tiny Canadian town, the barely average high- school and undergraduate work, the unpredicted success at Berkeley and Harvard, and the power years as Federal Administrator and advisor to Presidents. What the author doesn't do is suggest the depths of this most urbane of liberals, or reveal the driving ambition that kept him close to power all those decades he was hacking at its roots. When Lamson speaks of the affinity between Galbraith and the even more independent Thorstein Veblen, she strikes a theme that urgently needs development; instead, she catalogs a few things in common and remarks, ``It is too bad the two men never met.'' When Galbraith speaks casually of there having been no way to spend money in the 40's, Lamson scolds: ``And that, of course, is nonsense; there have always been ample ways to spend money if one is so inclined....'' Then she goes on to celebrate the Galbraiths' devotion to worthy causes and to chide them for their ``gadabout'' lives--when in fact an extraordinary career was being built. Only in his pithy observations on Vietnam does the giant emerge. Establishment writing about a brilliant rebel--barely a start at chronicling this Will Rogers of economics. -- Copyright �1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Although economist John Kenneth Galbraith built a career challenging the status quo, by the early 1950s he was seen by many as virtually a bona fide member of the establishment. Lively, perspicacious and affectionate, this biography does not shrink from candidly depicting Galbraith as an "empire-building" price-control czar during WW II; a member of the Kennedy coterie; a sometimes insensitive husband and absent father; an ambitious statesman who forever felt like "a farm boy trying to rise above" his rural Canadian roots. The author describes Galbraith in his roles as Fortune editor, Harvard professor, ambassador to India, TV star, novelist and skier. A biographer of Roger Baldwin, Lamson enlivens her wide-angled profile with closeups of JFK and his wife, Nehru, Adlai Stevenson, Eugene McCarthy, Nixon. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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