roup - a group of intellectuals whose ranks included well-known names such as Virginia Woolf, E.M.Forster and Bertrand Russell. He speculated considerably and as Bursar of King's College made the college very rich! He also acted as an advisor to a number of companies. In the Second World War made his peace again with the Treasury. As a result he was instrumental in providing the framework for post-war economic recovery. By the early 1930s, Keynes was well aware of the impact that his writings would have in their attacks upon some of the foundations of neoclassical economics. In 1935, he wrote George Bernard Shaw: I believe myself to be writing a book on economic theory which will largely revolutionize -- not, I suppose, at once but in the course of the next ten years -- the way the world thinks about economic problems. Keynes' new theory was published in 1936 as The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money. In the preface Keynes warned the reader of the struggle between fundamentally different ways of understanding how an economy really works: This book is chiefly addressed to my fellow economists . . .. I myself held with conviction for many years the theories which I now attack, and I am not, I think, ignorant of their strong points. . . The matters at issue are of an importance, which cannot be exaggerated. But, if my explanations are right, it is my fellow economists, not the general public, whom I must first convince. At this stage of the argument the general public, though welcome at the debate, are only eavesdroppers at an attempt by an economist to bring to an issue the deep divergences of opinion between fellow economists which have for the time being almost destroyed the practical influence of economic theory, and will, until they are resolved, continue to do so.Keynes wrote this book as an effort to get away from conventional ideas of classical economics. He was able to see the inherent problems of the narrowness of ...
