Galbraith, John Kenneth (găl`brāth), 1908–2006, American economist and public official, b. Ontario, Canada, grad. Univ. of Toronto (B.S., 1931), Univ. of California, Berkeley (M.S., 1933; Ph.D., 1934). After becoming (1937) a U.S. citizen and 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 from 1943–48, also serving on the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (1945) and in other governmental advisory posts before returning (1949) to Harvard. An adviser to Democratic presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, most prominently to John F. Kennedy Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 1917–63, 35th President of the United States (1961–63), b. Brookline, Mass.; son of Joseph P. Kennedy .

Early Life

..... Click the link for more information. , he also was (1961–63) U.S. ambassador to India. He rejoined the Harvard faculty in 1963 (he became a professor emeritus in 1975) and continued his political activities, serving (1967–69) as chairman of Americans for Democratic Action. A Keynesian economist and a celebrated liberal, Galbraith advocated government spending to fight unemployment, supported the use of more of the nation's wealth for public services and less for private consumption, and warned against an unregulated free-market system. An influential thinker and a popularizer of economic thought, he wrote more than 40 books including American Capitalism (1952), The Great Crash 1929 (1955), The Affluent Society (1958, rev. ed. 1985), The Liberal Hour (1960), The New Industrial State (1967, rev. ed. 1971), Economics and the Public Purpose (1973), The Good Society (1997), and The Economics of Innocent Fraud (2004). A witty and urbane man with wide-ranging interests, he also wrote a book on Indian art (1968) and several novels.

Bibliography

See his memoir, The Scotch (1964, repr. 1985); autobiography, A Life in Our Times (1981); Ambassador's Journal (1969); and history, Name-Dropping: From FDR On (1999); J. Goodman, ed., Letters to Kennedy/John Kenneth Galbraith (1998); J. R. and J. B. Stanfield, ed., Interviews with John Kenneth Galbraith (2004); A. D. Williams, ed., The Essential Galbraith (2001); biography by R. Parker (2005); studies by C. H. Hession (1972), M. E. Sharpe (1973), A. D. Williams (1979), D. Reisman (1980), J. R. Stanfield (1996), H. Sasson, ed. (1999), and B. Laperche and D. Uzunidis, ed. (2005).

Galbraith, John Kenneth

(born Oct. 15, 1908, Iona Station, Ont., Can.—died April 29, 2006, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.) Canadian-born U.S. economist and public servant. After studying at the Universities of Toronto and California (Ph.D., 1934), he held important government posts during the New Deal and World War II. As a professor at Harvard University (1949–75), he was active in public affairs, serving as an adviser to Pres. John F. Kennedy and as ambassador to India (1961–63). His influential liberal writings, often praised for their literary merit and popular appeal, examined the strengths and weaknesses of U.S. capitalism and consumerism. The Affluent Society (1958), a critique of the wealth gap, called for less emphasis on production and more attention to public services, and The New Industrial State (1967) traced similarities between “managerial” capitalism and socialism.

Galbraith, John Kenneth (1908– ) economist; born in London, Ontario, Canada. Emigrating to the U.S.A. in 1931, he pursued a diverse career that led him through academic and government positions including that of a Harvard professor (1949–75), U.S. ambassador to India (1961–63), personal adviser to President Kennedy, and best-selling author. His serious academic work focused on a critical analysis of interactions between economics and power in U.S. society. His broader reputation derives from his often acerbic and openly partisan critiques of national political as well as economic policies.