A View from the Stands: Of People, Politics, Military Power, and the Arts

Galbraith's celebrated wit and intelligence inform this miscellany of short pieces published over the past three decades. With a few exceptions (including a fine exploration of economics and the arts), the Harvard economist and author (The New Industrial State, etc.) sets aside economics to gather reviews of favored writers (from Mencken to Robertson Davies), travel observations, profiles (JFK, Henry Luce) and analyses of issues from Harvard's governance to arms control. One dips in and rediscovers the pleasures, say, of reading Evelyn Waugh, meets Indian art historians, journeys with the author to Brazil and Argentina. The collection, sure to appeal to Galbraith admirers, is an interesting view of this multifaceted liberal thinker's enthusiasms and concerns. (November 17)