The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
Published 1936 · 119,136 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Politics & Society
How hard is The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money to read?
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money scores 66 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 58 out of 100
- Technical economic vocabulary. Many terms Keynes invented or redefined.
- Sentence structure: 55 out of 100
- Abstraction: 65 out of 100
- Highly abstract macroeconomic theory with limited concrete illustration.
- Information density: 68 out of 100
- Packed with economic argumentation and mathematical reasoning.
- Narrative indirection: 80 out of 100
- Systematic argument, though Keynes frequently polemicizes against predecessors.
- Symbolic density: 80 out of 100
- Analytical. Economic models rather than metaphors.
- Ironic distance: 15 out of 100
- Keynes's caustic wit aimed at classical economists throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Keynes states his prescriptions directly.
- Structural complexity: 45 out of 100
- Six books of cumulative economic argument. Requires economics background.
How The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is regarded
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money holds a literary regard score of 52 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.