Jason Furman's Reviews > Essays in Biography

An often outstanding collection of biographical sketches by John Maynard Keynes, almost all of them of people he knew and worked with. The first set are shorter "Sketches of Politicians", including Churchill but also people I did not know like Bonar Law and Lord Oxford. These are interesting, occasionally particularly insightful, but also somewhat dated. But then the somewhat longer portraits of Malthus, Marshall and Edgeworth--plus some shorter pieces on Ramsey--are superlative mini biographies that give a flavor of the person's life, the substance and influence of their economics, and the role they played in creating the economics profession. In the case of Malthus, Keynes focuses on his debate with Ricardo on whether the economy is always in long-run equilibrium with fully utilized resources, one that Keynes judges Ricardo to have won for a century--to the detriment of economics. On Marshall, he focuses on his teaching, how that related to his writing, and his major contributions to economics. With Edgeworth, particularly notable was the role he played in establishing the Economic Journal and editing it for several decades until the day of this death. And Ramsey, unfortunately, does not get the full biographical treatment but his genius fully shines through in Keynes' appreciation of aspects of his work.

Any of this can be read individually the economics biographies, especially, repay reading as a group and a sustained narrative of economics in England, and particularly in Cambridge.