Description
Book SynopsisLeon H. Keyserling: A Progressive Economist is the insightful biography of the life and thought of the influential liberal reformer Leon H. Keyserling. By examining Keyserling''s life in the context of integrative liberalism, the biography aims to explore the origins of the concept of integrative liberalism and Keyserling''s profound and provocative contribution to it. The book follows the political reformer''s life from the beginning of his career as a member of Democratic Senator Robert Wagner''s staff, at the same time showing how the Progressive Movement, before World War I, was the ideological and institutional origin for integrative liberalism. The Great Depression and subsequent New Deal, to which Keyserling was a significant contributor, allowed integrative liberalism to develop until the movement started losing vitality in the 1960''s and came to an end during the Reagan Presidency. In the meantime, the book presents Keyserling as a major sculptor of Truman''s economic policie
Trade ReviewThis book is a timely and relevant analysis of the philosophy of Keyserling, an economic adviser to the President—an important man in terms of economic history and policy for his era and for ours today. A good and revealing read! -- W. Robert Brazelton, University of Missouri, Kansas City
From his boyhood near Beaufort, South Carolina, to his work as an architect of the New Deal, Leon Keyserling cared deeply about the poor and the powerless. Professor Donald Pickens reflects on the doctrines of Hegel, Keynes, and Dewey, and on the influences of mentors Rexford Tugwell and Senator Robert Wagner, to explain Keyserling's faith in economic growth and social engineering to solve the crises of the business cycle. -- Dale Rosengarten, College of Charleston
A major figure in the post-World War history of American political economy, Leon Keyserling has long needed a full biography. Donald K. Pickens has met that need with this excellent account of Keyserling's life and career. -- Charles C. Alexander, Ohio University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Beaufort and New York City Years Chapter 3 Keyserling, Wagner and the New Deal Integrative Liberalism Chapter 4 Housing, World War II and Integrative Liberalism Chapter 5 Integrative Liberalism and the Council of Economic Advisors, 1946-1953 Chapter 6 Keyserling and the "Defunct Economists" Chapter 7 A Liberal in Exile: Keyserling in Eisenhower's America Chapter 8 The Sixties: The New Deal Legacy and Integrative Liberalism's Future Chapter 9 From Nixon to Reagan: The Age of Limits and the Eclipse of Integrative Liberalism Chapter 10 The End Game: Keyserling and Reaganism
