Word: galbraith
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...admittedly a cheap shot to criticize Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith, on whom the above description is based, for being a "60s holdover. "He has been one of the nation's leading liberals since as far back as the late 40s, when his leftist leanings roused the Harvard Board of Overseas, for the first and last time, into trying to wield its merely symbolic power of halting tenure appointments. Furthermore, unlike less imaginative colleagues and students who simply emulate legends of that era, Galbraith actually helped shape his caricature's mold...
...TITLE SKIRTS the questions to whether Galbraith has appointed himself spokesman for those who have no voice of whether he is cataloguing the cry of the underprivileged. Neither interpretation actually applies to the content of the book, which in a very general way examines economic development. It is a revised version of a series of lectures given in India in the spring of 1982, which Galbraith ties together with sometimes tenuous theme that historical process-meaning the state of development-not ideology, should dictate what economic policy a country pursues...
...most insightful of the four short essays in the third, entitled "The Second Imperial Requiem, "Galbraith provides the not-so-new but always refreshing argument countering extremists on both sides of the spectrum who rally against U.S./U.S.S.R. neo-imperialism. He notes that an irrational reactionary rivalry between the two powers, not quest for world domination, dictates the sometimes dangerous foreign ventures, and that any such attempts at imperialism are doomed to failure. The reason is that self-determination governs the priorities of all nations, including those of the Third World, and that Eastern and Western dominance are equally repugnant...
...Galbraith elaborates on the illogical practices stemming from this futile superpower rivalry in two other essays. "The Constraints of the Historical Process," which looks at economic aid, and "The Military Nexus," which covers military aid. Both of these chapters argue that United States and Soviet Union assistance to the poorer countries are dictated not by the economic needs of the destitute receivers but by the rhetorical needs of the rhetorical needs of the prospering givers...
...Galbraith recalled him "as a friend, as a faculty member and especially as the keeper of one's conscience...