Vincent Barnett has been a Research Fellow on numerous economics and economic history projects at various UK Universities. His previous publications include E.E. Slutsky as Economist and Mathematician (2011), Marx (2009), and A History of Russian Economic Thought (2005).

John Maynard Keynes is arguably the most important and influential economist of the twentieth century, and stands alongside Adam Smith and Karl Marx as one of the most famous economic thinkers of all time. Keynes's radical reassessment of the accepted principles of economics led to new ways of thinking about how to deal with financial crises and economic depressions, and encouraged governments to increase levels of state investment to create economic growth.

Vincent Barnett argues controversially that allowing psychology a much greater role within economics was a main but often-neglected feature of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, and that Keynes's policy writings were more concerned with the Britain's national interest than is sometimes recognised. The result is a concise new biography that is both intellectually rigorous and easily accessible to students and anyone else seeking to understand the life and work of England's foremost economist.

Introduction. 1. A Most Indescribable and Extraordinary Game 2. Early Writings 3. Selling Economics by the Hour and on the Q.T. (of M.) 4. Early Economics 5. Killing Germans as Cheaply as Possible 6. The Economic Consequences of War 7. Cycling for Britain's National Interest 8. The Method of Modern Statesman 9. The Fool's Gold Standard and Laissez Faire 10. The Fluctuating Value of Monetary Reform 11. Organising Prosperity 12. It All Comes Out in the Wash 13. Multiplying (Un)employment by Expectations 14. Liquidising the Classical Theory 15. War Finance and the Post-War Economic Order. Conclusion.