Walter Lippmann: Public Economist

425 Pages·2014·2.32 MB·English

by  Craufurd D. Goodwin

Walter Lippmann

Walter Lippmann
Public Economist
Craufurd D. Goodwin
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, En gland
2014
Copyright © 2014 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Goodwin, Craufurd D. W.
Walter Lippmann : public economist / Craufurd D. Goodwin.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978- 0- 674- 36813- 2 (alk. paper)
1. Lippmann, Walter, 1889– 1974. 2. Economists— United States—B iography.
3. Journalists— United States— Biography. 4. Keynesian economics— United States.
I. Title.
HB119.L56G66 2014
330.15'6092—dc23
[B]
2014011214
Contents
Preface vii
Note on Citations and Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1 The Making of a Public Economist 5
2 Building Intellectual Community 36
3 “You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man” 56
4 Recovery 74
5 Keynesian Conversion 118
6 Reform I: Redistribution 171
7 Reform II: Monopoly 197
8 “Regenerated Liberalism” 223
9 War 261
10 Peace 298
11 The Economy of the Postwar World 316
12 The Good Economy 351
Draft of Declaration of Principles, 1936 373
Columns by Walter Lippmann 377
References 397
Index 401

Preface
I fi rst became aware of Walter Lippmann’s writings on economic subjects in
the 1980s while conducting research on one of the many topics that interested
him, and I was struck by the similarity of his approach to that of scholars in
the new schools of public policy that had sprouted up at American universities
in the 1960s and 1970s either newborn or converted from schools of public
administration. They both used what ever disciplines seemed appropriate,
and they took their priorities from current public policy debates rather than
the dictates of the disciplines. This led to an article in the journal Policy
Sciences (Goodwin 1995). More recently I was encouraged to return to
Lippmann for a paper to be given at a conference entitled “The Economist
as Public Intellectual” (C. Goodwin 2013). There I discovered Lippmann
to be even more compelling as a subject for study than I had remembered
and that parts of his enormous archive at Yale University Library were now
available on microfi lm. This book is the result of three subsequent years of
delightful reading in, and thinking about, his many published works and
his abundant correspondence, especially the columns entitled Today and
Tomorrow, which spanned thirty- six years of his career.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that Lippmann could write faster
than many people can read. This has made research on him challenging.
viii Preface
There are several thousand columns alone. I am grateful to my colleagues
in the Center for the History of Po liti cal Economy at Duke University for
putting up with repeated pre sen ta tions of early drafts of this work and for
responding politely to many Lippmann anecdotes. Bruce Caldwell, Direc-
tor of the Center, was especially kind to read the entire manuscript and
suggest many improvements. I am grateful to the Perkins Library of Duke
University for purchasing the microfi lms of the Walter Lippmann Papers
MS 326 held at Yale University Library and for obtaining a state of the art
machine with which to read them. The libraries of the following institu-
tions have kindly agreed to the publication of manuscript material in their
possession: Columbia University; Kings College, Cambridge; New York
Public Library; and Yale University. I am grateful also to librarians at
Harvard, Yale, and Columbia universities and to the New York Public Li-
brary for various kindnesses. Two anonymous readers of the manuscript,
and Angus Burgin, have provided exceptionally helpful comments and
suggestions.
Note on Citations and Abbreviations
This study is based substantially on three bodies of material: Walter
Lippmann’s books; his Today and Tomorrow columns over the years 1931–
1967; and the Walter Lippmann Papers, MS 326, contained in the Yale Uni-
versity Library. The Papers are fi led into several series, designated here by
roman numerals, and then into folders with Arabic numerals. Two series
are of special interest: Series I, Correspondence up to and including 1930;
and Series III, Correspondence 1931 and thereafter. Citations in the text
include sender, recipient, date, location in the Walter Lippmann Papers,
series, and folder, as in “WL to Joe Smith, December 25, 1935, WLPIII F123.”
Abbreviations Used in Text
HT New York Herald Tribune
NR New Republic
R The Reminiscences of Walter Lippmann (1950), Columbia
University Center for Oral History
WL Walter Lippmann
WLP Walter Lippmann Papers, MS 326, Manuscripts and Archives,
Yale University Library
WP Washington Post