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

Abstract

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).

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