The Price of Peace

Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes

By: Zachary D. Carter

Narrated by: Robert Petkoff

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An “outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit” (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas

“A timely, lucid and compelling portrait of a man whose enduring relevance is always heightened when crisis strikes.”—The Wall Street Journal

WINNER: The Arthur Ross Book Award Gold Medal • The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism
FINALIST: The National Book Critics Circle Award • The Sabew Best in Business Book Award
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times • The Economist • Bloomberg • Mother Jones


At the dawn of World War I, a young academic named John Maynard Keynes hastily folded his long legs into the sidecar of his brother-in-law’s motorcycle for an odd, frantic journey that would change the course of history. Swept away from his placid home at Cambridge University by the currents of the conflict, Keynes found himself thrust into the halls of European treasuries to arrange emergency loans and packed off to America to negotiate the terms of economic combat. The terror and anxiety unleashed by the war would transform him from a comfortable obscurity into the most influential and controversial intellectual of his day—a man whose ideas still retain the power to shock in our own time.

Keynes was not only an economist but the preeminent anti-authoritarian thinker of the twentieth century, one who devoted his life to the belief that art and ideas could conquer war and deprivation. As a moral philosopher, political theorist, and statesman, Keynes led an extraordinary life that took him from intimate turn-of-the-century parties in London’s riotous Bloomsbury art scene to the fevered negotiations in Paris that shaped the Treaty of Versailles, from stock market crashes on two continents to diplomatic breakthroughs in the mountains of New Hampshire to wartime ballet openings at London’s extravagant Covent Garden.

Along the way, Keynes reinvented Enlightenment liberalism to meet the harrowing crises of the twentieth century. In the United States, his ideas became the foundation of a burgeoning economics profession, but they also became a flash point in the broader political struggle of the Cold War, as Keynesian acolytes faced off against conservatives in an intellectual battle for the future of the country—and the world. Though many Keynesian ideas survived the struggle, much of the project to which he devoted his life was lost.

In this riveting biography, veteran journalist Zachary D. Carter unearths the lost legacy of one of history’s most fascinating minds. The Price of Peace revives a forgotten set of ideas about democracy, money, and the good life with transformative implications for today’s debates over inequality and the power politics that shape the global order.

LONGLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE

©2020 Zachary D. Carter (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Zachary D. Carter has given us an important, resonant, and memorable portrait of one of the chief architects of the world we’ve known, and know still. As Richard Nixon observed, we’re all Keynesians now—even if we don’t realize it. Carter’s powerful book will surely fix that.”—Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Hope of Glory

“A brilliantly wrought, beautifully written life of one of the most captivating intellects of the twentieth century.”—Liaquat Ahamed, author of Lords of Finance

“The Price of Peace is a towering achievement. Carter blends a nuanced and sophisticated financial history of the twentieth century with the intimate personal drama and political upheaval of an epic novel. . . . A masterful biography of a unique and complex social thinker.”—Stephanie Kelton, author of The Deficit Myth

Great history wrapped around biography

Carter does a masterful job of bringing the larger than life character of John Maynard Keyes to the page. This is cultural, intellectual and economic history at its best. Cast aside any view of economics as the dismal science and meet a Renaissance man of the 20th century.

Highly Relevant For A Season of Political and Economic Catastrophe

As a retired history teacher and a lifelong student of economic history, I thought I already knew a fair amount about John Maynard Keynes, but this superb biography greatly deepened my understanding of him as a person, a philosopher and, of course an economic thinker. With a wonderful performance by Robert Petkoff, this book for me was the audio version of a “page-turner.” As I write this in late July of 2020, Congress appears deadlocked over the roll that government spending can and should play to avert an economic collapse and it feels like we are in the midst of a tectonic historical shift. This history from 1914 through 1946 couldn’t be more relevant. The last section of the book explores what happened with Keynesianism, mostly in the US, after he died which moves it past being a biography into Intellectual/political history.

Thorough and always interesting

There’s a lot here to digest and let soak in. But I am glad I stuck with this book. I feel I now know who Keynes was and why his life’s work is as important today as it ever was. I love the last words of the book, which I think was a direct quote from Keynes, something to the effect that yes, “in the end we are all dead. But looking ahead to the future, anything is still possible.” This gave me hope in the face of today’s threats to democracy and the fate of life on this planet.

Must hear

So good I listen to it twice. This is why subscription to Audible is worthwhile.

Phenomenal

One of the better boos that inhale listened to. Genuinely entertaining while also presenting Keynes’s life in an informative manner.

Provides practical meaning for us today

In this book, Zachary D. Carter decodes the academic, political, and ideological conflicts that John Maynard Keynes lived through, contributed to, and participated in—and provides practical meaning for us today over 70 years after the end of Keynes' life. The author describes in documented detail how the straightforward logic of Keynes was never fully implemented (hint: a remarkably large amount of money, influence, and corruption conspired to keep neoliberal fallacies embedded in mainstream assumptions). Carter presents Keynesianism as focused on helping people to have better lives through the practical actions of governments and businesses—in this, practicality overrules ideology.

Also covered are the intimate details of Keynes' private life. Although he eventually married a woman, Keynes was gay (as openly as was practical in early 20th Century UK). Al tough he was concerned about the political oppression he saw in the Soviet Union when he visited there with his Russian wife, Keynes also had several Marxist friends. The Marxist connection to Keynes was leveraged by right wing groups in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s to scare away support of Keynesianism for reasons that had very little to do with Keynes himself or his theories—a typical line of propaganda that continues to be repeated in the US and elsewhere today.

In the period between the two world wars of the 20th Century, Keynes tried to convince world leaders to apply reason in how they treated defeated Germany. We know from history that they weren't reasonable with Germany, and the world paid a horrible price as a result. There are parallels to this today, as the same economic influences that led to fascism in the 1930s are very much at play in our own time. I'm convinced that taking Keynes seriously is an essential tool in preventing future disaster for ourselves.

In the second half of the book, Carter covers the approaches to Keynesianism in the US and elsewhere after Keynes' death. Both Democratic and Republican administrations are effectively skewered in this book for falling prey to neoliberalism, often due to well financed and coordinated influences. The context presents the policies actually implemented in contrast to what would have been had they adopted policies based on Keynes. The details presented provide a revealing sense of the personal interactions involved, and how they worked against the public interest.

Although Carter doesn't predict a return to Keynesianism in the near future, the book provides a context for more effective advocacy of people-oriented economic programs. There is much material to draw upon for encouraging governments at all levels to engage in public works and infrastructure projects. By illustrating where the resistance comes from and how it has been executed, Carter provides material from which one may better craft a persuasive campaign for Keynesian solutions. That by itself makes this book worth the read.

Immersive and addictive

A fantastic history of modern economic history wrapped up in an emotionally affecting biography. Resonant scholarship and storytelling

good

Here are 15 words to share the stars to say this recording was quite good.

Great read for our times

In light of all that is uncertain I thought it would be useful to brush up on the history of economics during the last world pandemic. This book provided that as well as a great profile that crosses the political spectrum to figure out economic policy in all matters of worldly concern.

Fusing Keynes to our modern world

After Skidelsky’s magnificent biography what else could a writer of Keynes’s life have to say? Yet Carter pulls it off by showing us how Keynesianism has fared since the great man’s death and it is a story of triumph followed by cynicism and betrayal.