Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-20T17:27:55.031Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Theory Arsenal: The Cambridge Circus and the Origins of the Keynesian Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Nahid Aslanbeigui  and
Guy Oakes
Nahid Aslanbeigui
Affiliation:
School of Business Administration, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764
Guy Oakes
Affiliation:
Jack T. Kvernland Chair, School of Business Administration, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ 07764.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the winter of 1934–35, when John Maynard Keynes was beginning to circulate proofs of The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, he indulged in a playful exchange of letters with George Bernard Shaw devoted mainly to the merits of Karl Marx as an economist. At the end of his letter of January 1, 1935, Keynes's observations took a more serious turn, documenting fundamental changes in his theoretical ambitions following the publication of his Treatise on Money in 1930: “To understand my state of mind, however, you have to know that I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory which will largely revolutionize—not, I suppose, at once but in the course of the next ten years—the way the world thinks about economic problems” (Keynes 1973a, p. 492).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 2002 , pp. 5 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Keynes Papers, Modern Archives, King's College, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Robertson Papers, Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Annan, Noel. 1999. The Dons: Mentors, Eccentrics, and Geniuses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Biagioli, Mario, ed. 1999. The Science Studies Reader. New York: Routledge Boulding Kenneth. 1948. Economic Analysis, 2nd ed. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Bryce, Robert B. 1977. “Keynes as Seen by His Students in the 1930s. (i) Robert Bryce.” In Patinkin, Don and Leith, J. Clark, eds., Keynes, Cambridge and The General Theory. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Crane, Diana. 1972. Invisible Colleges: Diffusion of Knowledge in Scientific Communities. Chicago: University ofChicago Press.Google Scholar
Dennison, S. R. and Presley, John R.. 1992. “Biography.” In Dennison, S. R. and Presley, John R., eds., Robertson on Economic Policy. New York: St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutscher, Patrick. 1990. R. G. Hawtrey and the Development of Macroeconomics. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feyerabend, Paul. 1978. Science in a Free Society. London: NLB.Google Scholar
Fujimura, Joan. 1996. Crafting Science: A Sociohistory of the Quest for Genetics of Cancer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1969. Strategic Interaction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Hanson, Alvin. 1949. Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Hempel, Carl G. 1965. Aspects of Scientific Explanation and other Essays in the Philosophy of Science. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Hutchison, Terrence W. 1978. On Revolutions and Progress in Economic Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Harry G. 1975. On Economics and Society. London: University ofChicago Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Harry G. 1977. “Cambridge as an Academic Environment in the Early 1930s: A Reconstruction from the Late 1940s.” In Patinkin, Don and Leith, J. Clark, eds., Keynes, Cambridge and The General Theory. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kahn, Richard F. 1931. “The Relation of Home Investment to Unemployment.” Economic Journal 41 (162): 173–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Richard F. 1984. The Making of Keynes' General Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kaldor, Nicholas. 1937. “Prof. Pigou on Money Wages in Relation to Unemployment.” Economic Journal 47 (188): 745–53.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1930. A Treatise on Money, Volumes I–II. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1935. “A Self-Adjusting Economic System?” The New Republic (01 20): 35–37.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1936. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1964.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1937. “Prof. Pigou on Money Wages in Relation to Unemployment.” Economic Journal 47 (188): 743–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1951. Essays in Biography, edited by Keynes, Geoffrey. New York: Horizon Press Inc.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1973a. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Volume XIII: The General Theory and After: Part I Preparation, edited by Moggridge, Donald. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1973b. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Volume XIV: The General Theory and After: Part II Defence and Development, edited by Moggridge, Donald. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Keynes, J. Maynard. 1979. The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, Volume XIII: The General Theory and After: A Supplement, edited by Moggridge, Donald. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kohler, Robert E. 1994. Lords of the Fly: Drosophilia Genetics and the Experimental Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Thomas S. 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Knorr-Cetina, Karin. 1981. The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Klein, Lawrence R. 1947. The Keynesian Revolution. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Laidler, David. 1999. Fabricating the Keynesian Revolution: Studies on the Inter-War Literature on Money, the Cycle, and Unemployment. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1983. “Give Me a Laboratory and I will Raise the World.” In Knorr-Cetina, Karin and Mulkay, Michael, eds., Science Observed. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1987. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 1988. The Pasteurization of France. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno and Woolgar, Steve. 1976. Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Fact. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Law, John, ed. 1986. Power, Action, and Belief. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leijonhufvud, Axel. 1968. On Keynesian Economics and the Economics of Keynes. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lynch, Michael. 1985. Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marcuzzo, Maria Cristina. 1994. “R. F. Kahn and Imperfect Competition.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 18: 25–39.Google Scholar
Marcuzzo, Maria Cristina. 1996. “Joan Robinson and Richard Kahn: The Origin of Short-Period Analysis.” In Marcuzzo, Maria Cristina, Pasinetti, Luigi L., and Roncaglia, Alessandro, eds., The Economics of Joan Robinson. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mills, C., Wright. 1951. White Collar: The American Middle Classes. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moggridge, D. E. 1992. Maynard Keynes: An Economist's Biography. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasinetti, Luigi L. 1987. “Robinson, Joan Violet.” In Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, eds., The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, Vol. IV. New York: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Patinkin, Don. 1977. “The Process of Writing The General Theory: A Critical Survey.” In Patinkin, Don and Leith, J. Clark, eds., Keynes, Cambridge and The General Theory. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patinkin, Don. 1982. Anticipations of the General Theory? And Other Essays on Keynes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pearce, Kerry A. and Hoover, Kevin D.. 1995. “After the Revolution: Paul Samuelson and the Textbook Keynesian Model.” In Cottrell, Allin F. and Lawler, Michael S., eds., New Perspectives on Keynes. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil. 1933. The Theory of Unemployment. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil. 1935. Economics in Practice: Six Lectures on Current Issues. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil. 1937. “Real Wages and Money Wage Rates in Relation to Unemployment.” Economic Journal 47 (187): 405–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil. 1938. “Money Wages in Relation to Unemployment.” Economic Journal 48 (189): 134–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pigou, Arthur Cecil. 1941. Employment and Equilibrium. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Popper, Karl. 1965. Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Potier, Jean-Pierre. 1987. Piero Sraffa: Unorthodox Economist (1898–1983). A Biographical Essay. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, Hans. 1951. The Rise of Scientific Philosophy. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, Dennis H. 1915. A Study of Industrial Fluctuations. London: P. S. King and Son Limited.Google Scholar
Robertson, Dennis H. 1922. Money. London: Nisbet and Company, Limited.Google Scholar
Robertson, Dennis H. 1926. Banking Policy and the Price Level. London: P. S. King and Son Limited.Google Scholar
Robertson, Dennis H. 1928. Money, revised edition. London: Nisbet and Company, Limited.Google Scholar
Robinson, Joan Violet. 1933a. “A Parable on Saving and Investment.” Economica 13 (02): 75–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Joan Violet. 1933b. The Economics of Imperfect Competition. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Robinson, Joan Violet. 1933c. “The Theory of Money and the Analysis of Output.” Review of Economic Studies 1 (10): 22–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Joan Violet. 1978. Contributions to Modern Economics. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. Austin G. R. 1931. The Structure of Competitive Industry. Cambridge Economic Handbooks, VII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. Austin G. R. 1946. “John Maynard Keynes 1883–1946.” Reprinted in Lekachman, Robert, ed., Keynes' General Theory: Reports of Three Decades. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. Austin G. R. 1964. “Could There Have Been a ‘General Theory’ without Keynes?” In Lekachman, Robert, ed., Keynes' General Theory: Reports of Three Decades. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. Austin G. R. 1977. “Keynes and his Cambridge Colleagues.” In Patinkin, Don and Leith, J. Clark, eds., Keynes, Cambridge and The General Theory. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Robinson, E. Austin G. R. 1994. “Richard Kahn in the 1930s.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 18: 7–10.Google Scholar
Rymes, Thomas K., ed. 1989. Keynes's Lectures, 1932–35: Notes of a Representative Student. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. 1948. Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Silberston, Z. A. 1987. “Robinson, Edward Austin Gossage.” In Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, eds., The New Palgrave: A Dictionary ofEconomics, Vol. IV. New York: Stockton Press.Google Scholar
Skidelsky, Robert. 1992. John Maynard Keynes: The Economist as Saviour (1920–1937). London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sraffa, Piero. 1926. “The Laws of Returns Under Competitive Conditions.” Economic Journal 36 (12): 535–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sraffa, Piero. 1932. “Dr. Hayek on Money and Capital.” Economic Journal 42 (03): 42–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarshis, Lorie. 1947. The Elements of Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Weir, Margaret. 1989. “Ideas and Politics: The Acceptance of Keynesianism in Britain and the United States.” In Hall, Peter A., ed., The Political Power of Economic Ideas: Keynesianism across Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Worrall, John and Currie, Gregory eds. 1978. Mathematics, Science, and Epistemology/Imre Lakatos. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar