Tucker Foundation | Tucker Points

John Kenneth Galbraith to Discuss Class Differences

John Kenneth Galbraith will visit the campus on April 16 to discuss class differences and divisions in American society. Galbraith is the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University, and is internationally known for his Keynesian and post-Keynesian economics, as well as his writing and participation in American politics. Professor Galbraith served as the deputy administrator of the Office of Price Administration in the early 1940s, and as the U.S. Ambassador to India from 1961 to 1963.

In 1958, Professor Galbraith published The Affluent Society, for which he won the Tamiment Book Award and the Sidney Hillman Award. The book challenged the myth of the U.S. economy's reliance on the gross national product for its social stability. Instead, he argued, the American consumer's taste for luxury goods dictated the economy's focus at the expense of the common welfare. The book predicted an increasing disparity between economic classes in the United States, a prediction borne out over the intervening years.

Professor Galbraith has published twenty four books, including two novels. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Literature.

Professor Galbraith will speak at 4:00 p.m. in 105 Dartmouth Hall on Thursday April 16th. His lecture is part of a series of events sponsored by the Tucker Foundation to foster discussion of social class differences in the United States.