The second installment of Skidelsky's three-volume biography of the 20th century's most influential and controversial economist. As in the superb first volume (1986)--which took Keynes (1883-1946) through the immediate aftermath of WW I--Skidelsky (International Studies/University of Warwick) offers a perceptive portrait, one that here reveals a worldly-wise philosopher at the peak of his considerable powers. Focusing on Keynes the innovative, albeit pragmatic, thinker who abandoned any notion that classical economics was a body of knowledge rather than a method of analysis, the author provides accessible perspectives on how the economist involved himself in Whitehall's disastrous decision to return England to the gold standard in 1925; in the mass misery of the Depression; and in other great issues. Stressing his subject's constant efforts to devise an economic system that would tame capitalism's more savage features without unleashing socialism, Skidelsky shows how Keynes achieved international stature sufficient to affect FDR's New Deal and then went on to write a masterwork with remarkable staying power, The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. In tracing the metamorphosis of Keynes from clever young man to authoritative adult, moreover, the author doesn't scant the public man's private life. Among other insights, he provides a moving account of how Keynes, long a homosexual, astounded Bloomsbury friends by falling in love with and marrying Lydia Lopokova, a Russian ballerina. Covered as well are the ways in which Keynes (who moved easily among venues as varied as academe, the arts, finance, government, and high society) used his market savvy to make himself a wealthy man. (One cavil: Skidelsky devotes too much attention to trivial details--e.g., furniture purchases for the Keynes country home and the given names of a servant's children.) A comprehensive and commanding profile that's bidding fair to become the standard reference. (Sixteen pages of b&w illustrations) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

羅伯特·斯基德爾斯基1934年7月19日齣生在中國哈爾濱一個俄籍猶太富商傢庭，嬰兒時就同父母一起被日本關東軍拘押在日本一年。戰後由於無法拿迴在哈爾濱的巨大傢産，移居英國，六十多年後纔重新訪問幼時的故園(2005年9月曾來華講學). 他的《凱恩斯傳》使他成為“20世紀最偉大的傳記作傢之一”，享譽國際學術界，並被英國女王封為勛爵。這本積三十年功力的著作隻有一個中心思想：經濟學不是“科學”，而是倫理學的一種應用，經濟學傢首先應該具有文化和道德觀。