The Age of Uncertainty
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''The Age of Uncertainty'' is a 1977 book and television series about economics, co-produced by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
, CBC,
KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...
and OECA, and written and presented by Harvard economist
John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...
.


Background

Galbraith fully acknowledged the successes of the
market system A market system (or market ecosystem) is any systematic process enabling many market players to offer and demand: helping buyers and sellers interact and make deals. It is not just the price mechanism but the entire system of regulation, quali ...
in economics but associated it with instability, inefficiency and social inequity. He advocated government policies and interventions to remedy these perceived faults. In his book ''Economics and the Public Purpose'' (1973) he proposed the extension of the planning system used in the industrial core of the economy to the wider market economy. He argued for a ''new socialism,'' with more steeply progressive taxes,
public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...
,
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and
transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...
, public support of the arts and the conversion of some corporations and military contractors into public corporations. He was the most read social scientist of his era. Galbraith's association with the U.S.
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
and his criticism of fellow economists, who promoted individualistic free-market economics that he perceived as a false social reality, occasioned strong responses.The Routledge dictionary of twentieth-century political thinkers, edited by Robert Benewick and Philip Green, p. 77, Routledge, 1998, He was of the opinion that "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding". In the midst of the
Watergate scandal The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...
in the summer of 1973 Galbraith was called by
Adrian Malone Hugh Adrian Malone (3 February 1937 – 13 March 2015) was a British documentary filmmaker who produced and directed a number of documentaries, including ''The Ascent of Man'' (1973), '' The Age of Uncertainty'' (1977), and '' Cosmos: A Personal ...
of the BBC and asked if he would be interested in doing a television series on the history of economic or social ideas. Galbraith had been thinking of retirement but quickly accepted Malone's proposal. At an early point they settled on the title "Age of Uncertainty" to reflect the sharp contrast between the great certainty in 19th century economic thought with the much less assured views in modern times.Galbraith, p. 7 As discussions about the series continued a further theme was developed: that what people believe about the workings of markets and their relationships to the state shapes history through the laws that are enacted or discarded. It was therefore decided that the treatment of these themes would loosely fall into two parts, ideas followed by their consequences.


Production

The content of the series was determined by Galbraith with the presentation style directed by his colleagues in the BBC. Galbraith began by writing a series of essays from which the scripts were derived and from these the book emerged which in many places goes beyond the material covered in the relevant television episode.Galbraith, p. 7,8 The series was three years in the making.


Series outline

# The Prophets and Promise of Classical Capitalism # The Manners and Morals of High Capitalism # The Dissent of
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
# The Colonial Idea #
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
and the Great Ungluing # The Rise and Fall of Money # The Mandarin Revolution # The Fatal Competition # The Big Corporation # Land and People # The Metropolis # Democracy, Leadership, Commitment # Weekend in Vermont (three one-hour programmes in which Galbraith discusses economics, politics and international relations with guests such as
Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
,
Georgy Arbatov Georgy Arkadyevich Arbatov (russian: Гео́ргий Арка́дьевич Арба́тов, 19 May 1923, Kherson – 1 October 2010, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian political scientist who served as an adviser to five General Secretaries of th ...
and
Edward Heath Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conserv ...
). These interviews are not covered in the book.


Reception

The leader of the British
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
,
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
, and
Keith Joseph Keith Sinjohn Joseph, Baron Joseph, (17 January 1918 – 10 December 1994), known as Sir Keith Joseph, 2nd Baronet, for most of his political life, was a British politician, intellectual and barrister. A member of the Conservative Party, he ...
objected to the screening of the series by the BBC as they perceived it too biased for a state-run TV station.
Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...
was brought over from
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
to lecture against Galbraith's economic viewpoints with
Nicholas Kaldor Nicholas Kaldor, Baron Kaldor (12 May 1908 – 30 September 1986), born Káldor Miklós, was a Cambridge economist in the post-war period. He developed the "compensation" criteria called Kaldor–Hicks efficiency for welfare comparisons (1939), d ...
opposing him. The ''
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'' and ''
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'', publications associated with the Conservative political party, dismissed the series whilst the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' and ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' viewed it positively. Milton Friedman presented his own response to Galbraith in his series '' Free to Choose''. Along with his other works ''Economics and the Public Purse'' and ''Money'', ''The Age of Uncertainty'' reinforced Galbraith's stature as a major American economist who upheld and championed traditional Keynesian economics as opposed to the more
free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...
and liberal economic theories of Milton Friedman.''The Encyclopedia of the History of American Management'',
Morgen Witzel Morgen Witzel (born 1960) is a Canadian historian, business theorist, consultant, lecturer and author of management books, especially known from his work on "Doing business in China" and on "Managing in virtual organizations".Fineman, Stephen, Yiann ...
, p. 189, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005,


Editions

* ''The Age of Uncertainty'', John Kenneth Galbraith, BBC – Andre Deutsch, 1977,


References

* Angus Burgin, ''Age of Certainty: Galbraith, Friedman, and the Public Life of Economic Ideas''. In: Tiago Mata/Steven G. Medema (eds.), ''The Economist as Public Intellectual'' (= ''
History of Political Economy The ''History of Political Economy'' is a journal published by Duke University Press, focusing on economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, a ...
'', annual supplement), Durham 2013, pp. 191–219


Notes


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Age of Uncertainty, The 1977 non-fiction books 1970s British documentary television series British documentary films British television documentaries BBC television documentaries Books by John Kenneth Galbraith