The Liberal Hour.
First Edition of John Kenneth Galbraith's The Liberal Hour; Inscribed by Him to His Close Friend Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck
The Liberal Hour.
GALBRAITH, John Kenneth [John Steinbeck].
Item Number: 111838
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960.
First edition of this work by the famed economist. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To John and Elaine Steinbeck with admiration and regards John Galbraith Cambridge 1960.” From the library of John Steinbeck. Galbraith and Steinbeck met in the early 1950s while on a holiday on St. John in the Virgin Islands. They enjoyed talking and both liked to have a drink at the end of the day, which Steinbeck referred to as “Milking Time” and Galbraith called “The Liberal Hour.” While the content of this book has nothing to do with alcohol consumption, this is clearly where he received inspiration for its title. Steinbeck and Galbraith continued to be friends after their initial meeting, occasionally seeing each other in person and writing letters (Steinbeck has been called one of the last great letter writers). Although known for being an economist, Galbraith had a background in agriculture, majoring in animal husbandry and received his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in agricultural economics from the University of California, Berkeley, so he was well acquainted with the issues that were brought to light in Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath. He and Steinbeck were both passionate about politics and worked together on Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign. The Steinbecks attended JFK’s inauguration with the Galbraiths, and their discussions regarding JFK’s inauguration speech were recorded on video as part of Robert Drew’s documentary for ABC Close-up show called “Adventures on the New Frontier.” Galbraith’s works influenced many of Steinbeck’s later books, including Travels with Charley, America and Americans, and The Winter of our Discontent. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Jacket design by Walter Lorraine. A wonderful association copy between these two giants of American literature and politics.
The Liberal Hour reveals how Washington, so often portrayed as a target of reform in the 1960s, was in fact the era's most effective engine of change. The movements of the 1960s have always drawn the most attention from the decade's chroniclers, but it was in the halls of government-so often the target of protesters' wrath-that the enduring reforms of the era were produced. With nuance and panache, Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot present the real-life characters-from giants like JFK and Johnson to lesser-known senators and congressmen-who drove these reforms and were critical to the passage of key legislation. The Liberal Hour offers an engrossing portrait of this extraordinary moment when more progressive legislation was passed than in almost any other era in American history.
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