ABSTRACT
Life and times (1883-1946) The impact of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money on the profession and in the realm of public policy has exceeded that which could reasonably have been expected from even such a distinguished and influential thinker as John Maynard Keynes. The reason for its sweeping success, in the face of received doctrine and a generally negative reception in non-academic circles at the time of its publication in 1936, is that it had something for everyone. One would have to go back to Adam Smith to find a comparable degree of persuasiveness with respect to public policy, to David Ricardo for the kind of rigorous analysis that inspires the deductive thinker, and to Karl Marx for someone who attracted sufficiently zealous and able followers to carry his message to the world.
