Deconstructing Harrod: Some Critical Observations on The Life of John Maynard Keynes

For over a generation Roy Harrod's Life of John Maynard Keynes (1951) was respected as a reliable source of information about the great economist's life. The work of Skidelsky in particular has placed a question mark against Harrod's account when it comes to discussing Keynes's sexuality and his conscientious objection in The First World War. Now it appears that Harrod's account of Keynes's politics and views about international economic policy are also highly misleading. The real Keynes was more radical and unconventional than the figure which emerges from Harrod's portrait, an exercise distorted by personal prejudice and cold war politics