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Article: John Kenneth Galbraith.(John Kenneth Galbraith, economist and public intellectual)(Obituary)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 6, 2006
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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John Kenneth Galbraith, economist and public intellectual, died on April 29th, aged 97
ABOVE a large oak bookcase in John Kenneth Galbraith's elegant sitting room in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a framed sampler was displayed. "Galbraith's First Law", read the meticulous red and blue cross-stitch: "Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue." He thoroughly believed it. Save for his humble origins on a farm in Ontario, little about Mr Galbraith or his life was modest.
At six foot eight, he was a giant. Intellectually he was equally towering, a man who spent more than seven decades either on the stage of American public policy--as a bureaucrat in Franklin ...