John Kenneth Galbraith

John Kenneth Galbraith OC October 15 1908 April 29 2006 also known as Ken Galbraith was a Canadian American economist diplomat public official and intellectual His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through the 2000s As an economist he leaned toward postKeynesian economics from an institutionalist perspective Galbraith was a longtime Harvard faculty member and stayed with Harvard University for half a century as a professor of economics He was a prolific author and wrote four dozen books including several novels and published more than a thousand articles and essays on various subjects Among his works was a trilogy on economics American Capitalism 1952 The Affluent Society 1958 and The New Industrial State 1967 Some of his work has been criticized by economists Milton Friedman Paul Krugman Robert Solow and Thomas Sowell Galbraith was active in Democratic Party politics serving in the administrations of Franklin D Roosevelt Harry S Truman John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson He served as United States Ambassador to India under the Kennedy administration His political activism literary output and outspokenness brought him wide fame during his lifetime Galbraith was one of the few to receive both the World War II Medal of Freedom 1946 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom 2000 for his public service and contributions to science Galbraith was born on October 15 1908 to Canadians of Scottish descent Sarah Catherine Kendall and Archibald Archie Galbraith in Iona Station Ontario Canada and was raised in Dunwich Township Ontario He had three siblings Alice Catherine and Archibald William Bill By the time he was a teenager he had adopted the name Ken and later disliked being called John Galbraith grew to be a very tall man attaining a height of 6 feet 9 inches 206 cm His father was a farmer school teacher head of a cooperative insurance company and local official of the Liberal Party His mother a homemaker and a community activist died when he was fourteen years old The family farm was located on Thomson Line Both of his parents were supporters of the United Farmers of Ontario in the 1920s His early years were spent at a oneroom school which is still standing on 9468 Willey Road in Iona Station Later he went to Dutton High School and St Thomas High School In 1931 Galbraith graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the Ontario Agricultural College which was then an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto He majored in animal husbandry He was awarded a Giannini Scholarship in Agricultural Economics receiving 60 per month that allowed him to travel to Berkeley California where he received masters and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in agricultural economics from the University of California Berkeley Galbraith was taught economics by Professor George Martin Peterson and together they wrote an economics paper titled The Concept of Marginal Land in 1932 that was published in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics Source Article John Kenneth Galbraith from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30