Description: It is a commonly held belief that, in 1936, Keynes' General Theory ushered in a new era in economic thought, with faith in the free market being replaced by reliance on systematic government intervention as a means of keeping the economy on an even keel. This book surveys the writings of a large number of economists in the interwar years and argues that the "Keynesian Revolution" is a myth, and that the "new economics" was a careful and selective synthesis of an "old economics" that had been developing for twenty years or more.
Review Quotes: "Natura non facit saltum. So said Marshall, and once again he's been proven correct. Without denigrating the very real contributions of John Maynard Keynes, David Laidler demonstrates conclusively that, far from inventing an entirely novel theory to challenge a dead orthodoxy, Keynes fabricated his theory from the ample materials provided by a lively and diverse interwar literature. Fabricating the Keynesian Revolution sets Keynes's work in the theoretical context of its period as no other book has. It is must reading not only for historians of economics but for anyone who wants to understand how modern macroeconomics came to be." Neil Skaggs, Illinois State University