New Light on an Old Master: Review Article
The appearance of two new monumental biographies (Moggridge, I992, Skidelsky, I 992 see References) prompts the thought that no other economist has had an impact on economic doctrine, on economic policies and on the public's perception of what economists do, or should be doing, to compare with John Maynard Keynes. The shelves of every economics library are groaning under the works on Keynes, on Keynesianism, on the post-Keynesians and anti-Keynesians, quite apart from the works by the master himself, now available in a splendid 30-volume edition. Can there be anything left to be said? Even if there is, do we really need two full-length biographies, covering not merely the development of the ideas which have inspired that extensive literature, but also, in great detail, the private and public life of the man who launched them? No doubt about it, biography is a popular form of art. Books, plays and films, whether truthful or partly fictionalised, on the lives of individuals who mattered in history are avidly consumed by the public. We clearly enjoy being able to identify with our heroes and to share vicariously in their actions, their victories and their defeats. But economists are not, on the whole, actors upon the historical stage. Even Keynes, who came closer to being one than most, particularly towards the end of his life, was an adviser, not a decision-maker. The interest he excites most is intellectual, not heroic. We would want, above all, to appreciate his ideas, if possible in their historic context, and not the location in which he wrote them down. Yet in the case of Keynes a special element enters. He was more than an economist, though he was the outstanding one of his generation. He was also directly involved in business in the City, in publishing, in University and College administration and, most unusual of all, in the world of the arts, of literature, painting, drama and the ballet. More than that: he made his mark in each of these, and there can be few within the economics profession who would not wish to penetrate the outer shell of so successful a teacher, innovator and adviser, to learn something of the rich life that existed underneath it. The major full biography available to date, which was published more than forty years ago (Harrod, I951) was written as a pious memorial by someone who knew him personally and had access to many of his subject's papers. It has stood the test of time well as far, at least, as Keynes's intellectual development is concerned, and few significant corrections have had to be made to it in that