The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
John Maynard Keynes · 1936
Keynes wrote this during the Great Depression to explain why markets fail and governments must intervene. His theory of aggregate demand and the multiplier effect remade economic policy worldwide. Every modern debate about fiscal stimulus vs. austerity is a debate about Keynes.
The case against
Famously, even economists read the commentaries instead. Keynes buries his revolution under wage-units, own-rates of interest, and chapter-long quarrels with the classical economists; the prose alternates between sudden brilliance and pages that resist a third reading. What most people mean by Keynes was reconstructed by others from this thicket. Start with them, honestly.
Non-Fiction · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
