Keynes’s General Theory swept academic economics before it changed any policy.

Evidence

Although The General Theory had little immediate impact on public policy, it swept through the profession with, in the terms of the MIT economist Paul Samuelson, “the unexpected virulence of a disease fi rst attacking and decimating an isolated tribe of South Sea islanders.” Even Keynes’s critics acknowledged the broad infl uence of his work on young scholars in the fi eld. Reviewing the book from his position at Harvard, Joseph Schumpeter recounted “the expectations of the best of our students, the impatience they displayed at the delay in getting hold of their copies, the eagerness with which they devoured them, and the interest manifested by all sectors of Anglo- American communities that are up to this kind of reading.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 78

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Keynesian economics conquered academia before shaping public policy — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 78; Post-crisis behavioral economics reduced Keynes to irrationality that disrupts general equilibrium. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 729

Broader Connections

• Keynesian economics conquered academia before shaping public policy #corroborates (1.00) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 78
• Post-crisis behavioral economics reduced Keynes to irrationality that disrupts general equilibrium. #qualifies (0.70) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 729