Volume 34, Number 17 · November 5, 1987
Economists at High Noon
By Robert L. Heilbroner
Economics in Perspective: A Critical History
by John Kenneth Galbraith
Houghton Mifflin, 324 pp., $19.95
There are many things wrong with John Kenneth Galbraith's twenty-fifth book, but there is one important thing right with it. What is wrong will disturb economists—an often slapdash exposition of economic ideas, occasional mistakes of some consequence, a few cavalier historical expositions. But what is right is a perspective on economics that will enlighten its noneconomist readers. Galbraith sees his discipline not as a majestic creation of disembodied intelligence but as the unfinished, still inadequate product of a struggle to understand and master the perplexities and problems of capitalist society. His view is that economic ideas can only be understood as products of their time, and that times change, whereas 'at best, change in economics has been reluctant and reluctantly accepted.' Like generals, economists fight the wars behind them.
Review, 2598 words
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