The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money. by KEYNES, John Maynard - 1936

London: Macmillan and Co, Limited,, 1936. One of the defining books of the century Octavo. Original blue cloth, spine lettered and double-ruled in gilt, ruling continued to covers in blind. With the dust jacket. Spine ends lightly bumped, very minor creasing to some page corners, very light offset from newspaper clipping to pp. 156-7 (the clipping, a letter to The Times supporting Keynes by Alex Spearman MP, is now loosely inserted in a protective plastic sleeve). A very good copy in the dust jacket, toned and chipped, spine panel darkened and rubbed. First edition, first impression. "The world-wide slump after 1929 prompted Keynes to attempt an explanation of, and new methods for controlling, the vagaries of the trade-cycle … in his General Theory, he subjected the definitions and theories of the classical school of economics to a penetrating scrutiny and found them seriously inadequate and inaccurate" (PMM). His conclusion, namely that "the regulation of the trade-cycle - that is to say the control of booms and slumps, the level of employment, the wage-scale and the flow of investment - must be the responsibility of governments", permanently altered the terms of economic debate and considerations of the role of government in managing the economy (or not). Moggridge A10.1; Printing and the Mind of Man 423.