Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Economics as Ideology: Keynes, Laski, Hayek and the Creation of Contemporary Politics

Economics as Ideology: Keynes, Laski, Hayek and the Creation of Contemporary Politics explores the lives and thought of three powerful theorists who shaped the foundations of the center, left, and right of the political spectrum in the 20th century. Noted scholar Kenneth R. Hoover examines how each thinker developed their ideas, looks at why and how their views evolved into ideologies, and draws connections between these ideologies and our contemporary political situation. Similar in age, colleagues in academic life, and participants in the century's defining political events, the story of Keynes, Laski, and Hayek is also the story of how we in the west came to define politics as the choice between government and the market, between regulation and freedom, and between the classes and the masses. Review An important book and a fascinating, absorbing read.--G. C. Harcourt, Jesus College, Cambridge University I enormously enjoyed reading Economics as Ideology. The tradition of parallel and interacting biography is small but distinguished. Hoover adds a further dimension with his examination of the role of opposition, and his investigation of the link between social situation, individual circumstances, and thinking.--Rodney Barker, London School of Economics This is a very credible work of prodigious scholarship, with frequent keen analyses and insights, and written in a lively, attractive style.--Kenneth Dolbeare, editor of American Political Thought About the Author Kenneth R. Hoover is professor of political science at Western Washington University. His previous books include The Elements of Social Scientific Thinking, Ideology and Political Life, and The Power of Identity: Politics in a New Key.