Ezra's Bookshelf

The Price of Peace

by Zachary D. Carter · 666 pages · ~12 hrs

EconomicsBiography & MemoirHistory

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Zachary Carter tells the story of John Maynard Keynes, whose economic ideas shaped the twentieth century and remain fiercely debated today. Carter traces Keynes from his Bloomsbury world of artists and intellectuals through his critique of the Versailles Treaty, his development of macroeconomic theory during the Depression, and his work designing postwar international institutions. But the book extends beyond Keynes's death in 1946 to follow his ideas through the Cold War, the Great Society, the stagflation of the 1970s, and the financial crisis of 2008. Carter shows how Keynesian economics was adopted, adapted, and attacked, becoming both orthodoxy and scapegoat depending on political needs. The book is equally interested in Keynes's personal life: his marriage to Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova, his homosexual relationships, his investments and speculations, his passionate advocacy for art and civilization. For readers interested in economics, intellectual history, or the relationship between ideas and power, Carter provides a compelling account of how one thinker's vision shaped the modern world.

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