Annals of an Abiding Liberal

Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1979. First Printing. Hardcover. good/fair. 22 cm, 384, DJ worn and soiled, tear to top of front DJ flap, pencil erasure on front endpaper. A collation and revision of numerous earlier published essays and articles. John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith, OC (October 15, 1908 - April 29, 2006) was a Canadian (and later American) economist, public official, and diplomat, and a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s, during which time Galbraith fulfilled the role of public intellectual. As an economist, he leaned toward Post-Keynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective. Galbraith was a long-time Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics. He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books, including several novels, and published more than a thousand articles and essays on various subjects. Among his most famous works was a popular trilogy on economics, American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958), and The New Industrial State (1967). Galbraith was active in Democratic Party politics, serving in the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson. He served as United States Ambassador to India under the Kennedy administration. His political activism, literary output and outspokenness made him, arguably, "the best-known economist in the world" during his lifetime. Galbraith was one of few recipients both of the Medal of Freedom (1946) and the Presidenial Medal of Freedom (2000) for his public service and contribution to science.