The Affluent Society - John Kenneth Galbraith

Advantages: In English, in paperback
Disadvantages: You tell me

...Further to your comments a review update : A History of Economics the past as the present by John Kenneth Galbraith who is Paul.M.Warburg Professor of Economics emeritus of Harvard University. He has published many books, this included. MORE ABOUT GALBRAITH Born in Ontario and a graduate of the University of California. He was Social Science Research Fellow at Cambridge University. During WW11 he was Director of the Office of Economic Security Policy in the Department of State. He received the Medal of Freedom. He has been closely identified with the Democratic Party (USA). He is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. He is a member for literature of the American Academy and Institute. He delivered the Reith Lectures in 1966. He is married with 3 sons. *** THE BOOK *** The paper back version I bought is 324 pages long... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Informative and entertaining
Disadvantages: Slow in places

...-balanced and completely avoids taking sides, which is refreshing, and serves as a reminder that no matter how often I get annoyed by how useless my MP appears (I didn’t vote for him), I probably couldn’t do his job. There are undoubtedly a lot of problems in politics and Jeremy Paxman helps shed light on a lot of these – as well as highlighting the difficulties of actually being a politician. As he muses, “Perhaps it is true that, as the public have come to think politics trivia, trivial people have become attracted to politics” – a dangerous approach, since politics has so much bearing on our lives. He warns that “A society which loses faith in how it governs itself is in danger of falling apart”, reminding us that a reformation (or perhaps a renovation!) is long overdue. Nonetheless, as I next go to the polling booth, I will be reminded of John Kenneth... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Challenging and Entertaining
Disadvantages: Some people may be offended by it's contents

...curiously lacking in any real emotion until his holidays abroad. Here there is an abandon that he's not known before and mixed with the soft drug abuse, he conveys it boldly. Most of the contents of his diary in this book are kept to a minimum, with John Lahr running a commentary throughout, justifying the reasons he had for including the excerpts that are there. He details the arguments and comments in his life with his partner, Kenneth, whose mental state was becoming more unstable. He was finding his relationship stifling and stale. Kenneth felt more like a mother to Joe, and a clingy one at that. Joe's need for sex was at complete odds with his partner's and it made him constantly seek out dangerous situations, some of which are recalled in here in detail. As a reader you can see where all of this is leading, but John Lahr does a supreme... Read review

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